Learning to Love Again
by kirara kagome
Summary: Zero is changing. A fact that he has already become aware of. However contrary to his beliefs he is not descending into a level E. When he finds himself as the mate of none other then Kaname Kuran old memories re-surface. The only thing now is to surpass the the pains of the past and learn to love again
1. prelude

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N** Okay so this is my first attempt at writing fan fic like ever so pleas don't be harsh okay? T.T anyway this is an idea that has been going around in my head for a while now so…

**Warning(s) **hmm not sure… some violence and gore that's for sure… rating my go up but it depends on your reviews ^^ oh yeah it's mild yaoi so don't read if you don't like ^^

**Summery: **Yuki is turned into a pure blood however she has changed. Drastically. Now she is in the night class and refuses to take on prefect duties. Zero is starting to feel that he is changing and although he thinks that it is his decent into level E status Yagari knows that it is something different. Kaname has also taken an interest in Zero but is it real?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

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**Prelude**

What would you do if everything that you loved were taken away from you all in one night? Would you cry if I were gone? Would you grieve my death? Would you hope that I was alive? Would you care? So many questions but you would never know would you?

Zero sat under the shade of the tree and sighed. It was definitely getting worse. He had felt it some weeks ago when Bloody Rose had evolved and now it continued to get stronger. The pain, the terrible gut wrenching pain that had come. The only good thing that came out of it was the fact that his blood lust had not been as bad lately. However Zero knew better. To stop a level E's fall one had to drink the blood of their maker. He had done that, done that and more.

He had killed his own twin brother.

"I'm a monster"muttered the silver haired boy "nothing but a monster" Zero felt safe here in the woods. No one came to disturb him. Before it would always be Yuki that stubbornly wasted her time trying to find him and take care of him when he wanted to be alone. That was in the past now. Yuki was a pureblood. Zero could not understand what had caused the change in the girl. Two weeks after the re-building of the school she had turned nasty.

'Filthy level E' was now one of her favourite things to shoot at Zero whenever they met at class changeovers. She was the perfect personification of the phrase stuck up pureblood. Zero had briefly wondered if it was all Kaname's fault at the beginning but one would have to be blind, or as in Yuki's case evidently have severely impaired vision not to see the disapproving looks that her 'precious dear brother' was throwing at her.

Thinking about Kaname it seemed that the leech was attempting to be _nice_ to Zero. A detail that he feverishly hopes was only due to his imagination. He could not stand to be around that leaches for more then five minutes without feeling the temptation to just shoot the bastard in the head and be done with it. Too bad the chairman would never let him. A gust of wind brought the shrill voices of hyper Day class girls to the tired prefect's ears.

"Damn fan girls screaming kya kya kya everyday" scowled the prefect in a sour mood already. With a huff he got up and went to face today's over enthusiastic fans. It was actually easier without Yuki's pitiful attempts at holding back the crowd. What got to Zero was the fact that they screamed so blasted loudly that with his advanced hearing he was sure that he was going to go deaf any second. Mentally resigning himself to another round of torture, walked off in the direction of the screams.

It was utter chaos. The students had taken advantage of the hunter's absence and had crowded the gate.


	2. beginnings

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N** I'm back^^ due to school I'm writing this at the wee hours in the morning! Thanks to all you who read my story I'm really honored really I am^^ really big thanks to ben4kevin for putting my story on his favorites list^^ also thanks to waterling, nina86, stcy, for following^^ love you guys 3 Please drop a review!

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and yeah we'll se how we go^^

**Summary: **Yuki is turned into a pure blood however she has changed. Drastically. Now she is in the night class and refuses to take on prefect duties. Zero is starting to feel that he is changing and although he thinks that it is his decent into level E status Yagari knows that it is something different. Kaname has also taken an interest in Zero but is it real?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

≈Ω≈

Kuran Kaname stared out his lavish French style windows on the third floor of the moon dorms. It was early afternoon –high time for a vampire to be asleep. However he could not allow himself that luxury. It was the only time of day that he enjoyed now. When Yuki had first come to the night class he had thought that everything would now be perfect. He had planned for this all of his life, to have his bride to be at his side and together they would strive to achieve their parent's dream: co-existence between vampires and humans.

It seemed that it was a distant dream now, his bride; his sweet Yuki had changed so much. Kaname had hoped that having been human for most of her life she would retain her care and still consider them worth fighting for. Nothing could be further from the truth when it came to Yuki's 'better' perception of humans.

She now thought of them as the scum beneath her shoes and did not so much as to spare them a glance. The day class girls did not notice, luckily they were too preoccupied by the 'charms' of the other vampires. Kaname chuckled. If Yuki found out that she was being up-staged by the 'lowly' vampires everyday in front of the 'pathetic humans' there would be blood and lots of it. Hell she might destroy the school while she's at it.

With a sigh Kaname pulled himself from those thoughts and concentrated on the mountain of paperwork in front of him. He swore that they were multiplying by the day. Although he thought ruefully this is what he got for killing the vampire council without further planning. It couldn't be helped now, he was stuck with the work and he had no one else to blame but himself.

Seeing a flash of silver in the woods made Kaname smile. Even if Yuki has change the bad-tempered hunter had most definitely not. Even now he could see the glare that was almost permanently etched on the ex-human's face. He wanted to make his hunter smile and be happy. The last thought pulled Kaname up short. _His _hunter? What was he thinking? Blaming the ridiculous thought on sleep depravation he turned quickly from the window, determined to at least get some work done before it was time for class changeovers.

†

Zero leaned against the wall and groaned. He could feel a headache coming already, it was happening very often nowadays. Vaguely he wondered if he was somehow still descending to level E status. Logically he knew that it was not possible and it defied the laws of the vampire world but he could not help but to think that he deserved what he got. One does not simply drain their twin brother without a cost. Shaking his head and putting away those thoughts for now, he focused his attention to the two now orderly lines of fan girls eagerly awaiting for class change-over when they could finally see their beloved vampires again. Of course none of the day class had any idea that the night class was all vampires or else they would have run for the hills a long time ago, crushing the chairman's dreams of co-existence.

With a sigh Zero glared at a girl who attempted to break out of line, causing the poor girl to whimper in fright and hastily retreat back to her place. The hunter wondered why the fuck no one had thought to put barriers on either side of the path before. It was probably because Cross had some idiotic notion that it somehow miraculously allowed the two classes to get along. Knowing the chairman if Zero so much as mentioned it to him he would be asking for an earful of how his 'darling son' was finally putting in effort to help in his cause. This would no doubt be followed by an attempt at a bone-crushing hug by the hyperactive man. Resulting only with the ex-hunter gaining a very close up view of his office floor. Zero shook his head, seriously the old man just never learned. Actually it seemed like that he refuse to learn, no matter how many times the silverette had rejected him the crazy old man still came back for more.

Suddenly the hunter's ears were insulted by an overly loud course of kyas and sampais, which his enhanced sense of hearing certainly did not appreciate.

Almost two seconds after the gates of the moon dorm swung open. Zero sweat dropped, it felt like that the girls had an internal clock timed exactly for when the night class students would appear. It was foolish and stupid in his opinion.

Retaining his signature glare on his face he watched the night class led by Yuki and Kaname walk past. Something about their set up made him frown. Yuki was walking in _front_ of Kuran. The hunter was not so stupid not to know that the pure blood walked in front of the entire class every day for a reason. In vampire society the one who walks at the head of the party was their 'leader' or the most powerful vampire of that group. He had been brought up as a hunter after all and a predator needed to know as much a possible about their prey, especially prey that had a high chance of killing them while they hunted. Thus the silver-haired teen took close notice of every detail given out by the vampires. The nobles of Kuran's inner circle looked upset but even Aido did not say anything and by the looks of it, no matter how upset the vampires were, it was evident that no one would voice their opinion. Kuran on the other hand looked more then a tad annoyed at the younger pure blood's behavior.

≈Ω≈

Unbeknownst to the hunter Yuki had just openly challenged the elder to his right as the head of the entire night class and his inner circle. It was a grave offence and the only thing that stopped the pure bloods from and all out fight was the fact that Kaname did not wish to spill his younger sister's blood. She was the only family he had now and he could not bring himself to harm her. Kaname sighed. He was being too lenient on his younger sister. Yes he could say it now, younger sister –not bride. It had taken him many hours of tortuous brooding, denial and a stack of un-finished paperwork but he had finally admitted it to himself. He could no longer think of the girl in front of him as his bride. In all honesty the pure blood was angry with himself. He was never the one for denial, the causal dismissal of certain opinions (mostly from Aido) certainly but he had never been in complete denial. This thought annoyed him and so he did not notice that Yuki had taken advantage of his absence of attention to slip _in front_ of him. This caused the annoyed expression that he had been holding back earlier to show forth. It was unlike him to be this careless, particularly in front of people. It could not be helped now. Kaname heaved a quiet sigh, it seemed that he was constantly responding to situations now-days not foreseeing them. It had been talent that he was most proud of.

Quietly resigning himself to the flood of questions that were no doubt to come he walked to class _still_ half-a-step behind Yuki.

†

Zero frowned at the unusual sight as the night class headed his way. It seemed that Yuki could not go a day without throwing her choice of insults at him. Just like he expected she stopped right in front of him and opened her mouth.

"What you still here you filthy level D? You do not belong here where everyone is so much better than you. I'm going to complain to the chairman of this sorry school to have you removed immediately" sneered Yuki with her now signature stuck up expression. The hunter did not know if looking down her nose at him was to intimidate or what but due to the fact the he was so much taller then her it looked like that she was desperately attempting to show him her nostrils. Hiding a smirk he just looked blankly back, not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction and said.

"Kuran get to class, or else they will leave you behind" Zero commented with a scowl.

"No they won't" boasted Yuki "I'm their princess, they won't go anywhere without me"

"Oh really? Well then miss princess your people are already half way to class and unless you want to be late you'd better do the same." Said a sarcastic Zero with a role of her eyes.

True to his words the night class was indeed halfway to class and amidst a crowd of screaming fans. Yuki huffed and quickly went to join then. Zero shook his head. Seriously he just didn't know that girl anymore. It was as if she was a completely different person. When Yori had tried to talk to her after Rido's death she had made the poor girl cry and claimed that she wanted nothing more to do with the human. It made Yori seem to hate her and Yori _never_ hated anyone.

"Bastard Purebloods" muttered the hunter.

≈Ω≈

Kaname watched as his sister went to her daily insults of the silver haired hunter. Thanks to his advance hearing he knew that Zero was not cowed by the girl's petty insults. Inwardly he chuckled. It was so like the hunter not to give a damn about status. He would only respect people that he felt that deserved it and he would not hesitate to give anyone a piece of his mind. Kaname sighed. How he wished that the silver-haired beauty would not glare at him. For the second time that day a thought about the hunter brought Kaname Kuran up short. What was wrong with him? Surely he did not care for the hunter right? If one were to look at the pureblood now, it would seem that nothing was wrong. However if you were scrutinizing him like a certain hunter one would see a slight crease in his brow, a sure indication that something was bothering the pure blood.

Thinking that it was just the whole 'leading' fiasco Zero thought nothing of it. Blissfully unaware that he had somehow caught the attention of the senior pureblood.

†

Zero was coughing badly in his room. It was around midnight when he should have been doing his patrols, especially now that Yuki had considered the prefect position 'below her status' and had given Cross an earful of how he had no right to tell her what to do. It was one of the only times that Zero had pitied the elder hunter; Kaien had looked so crushed and for once did not show any signs of a smile. Choking down blood tablets had never been this hard. Before his body would only reject it when it hit his stomach but now it seemed that his throat would close up before he could even swallow. 'More evidence that somehow he was still falling to level E status' he thought to himself. Seriously what did he expect? He did not deserve to be able to live a happy life. Everything he touched was poisoned. Shaking his head in disgust he gave up on the blood tablets and hauled himself out to do patrols.

Sighing in relief as the cool night air hit his face the hunter sat down on the prefect's balcony and after ensuring that he had an un-obstructed view of the entire school the prefect let his thought wonder.

The pain that he felt was decidedly getting worse. It had now come to the point where he could not sleep, he would be kept up the entire night convulsing in pain. He had briefly wondered that if it was the end but he could not detect any hint of the terrifying feeling of one's mind slowly slipping in to the mentality of a monster. Zero snorted at that thought. Like it would make the slightest difference. He had killed already and it was not some random stranger. No his first kill had been his own twin brother, what kind of person did that make him?

Hearing the giggling of some over-persistent girls Zero drew himself out of his thoughts and sighed. He swore that they were all related to the chairman in some way. They never learned, ever. Glowering he jumped down from the three story building and landed without a sound. He wondered if he should scare them just to teach them a much-needed lesson but quickly discarded that idea. They would probably faint and he would have to carry not one but two girls back to the dorms, which would most likely put him in the center of attention in class the next day. Savagely disliking any amounts of attention focused on him for lengthy periods of time he opted to make his approach be heard. Hopefully they would run off themselves and save him the trouble. Yeah the prefect thought to himself when was the last time that had happened? Oh right. Never.

≈Ω≈

Kaname looked out the window and smiled. He could see the silver haired hunter stomping his feet and purposely stepping of twigs and making them snap in an effort not to scare the day class girls the he was currently headed towards. No doubt they had thought themselves cleaver as to sneak out in the middle of the night to see their favorite night class. Internally the pureblood smiled. If one had asked the prefect why he would bother to make his presence be known they would most likely be greeted by an answer somewhere along the lines of not wanting to cause more trouble for himself but Kaname thought that he knew the real reason. Zero was kind; the boy himself may not think that (in fact he was fairly sure that the boy thought worse of himself then all of the night class put together, and since he was counting Yuki in it, that was quite a substantial amount of hate.) but Kaname knew. He truly did not wish any harm to the girls although the hunter would never willingly accept that verdict. The hunter was one of the rare people in this world that held a truly pure heart. What made the silverette even more admirable was that he had kept that heart, although not consciously, throughout his tragic and painful life. In all his long years Kaname Kuran, one of the first pure bloods had never seen a person quite like Kiryu Zero.

Watching the glaring prefect yell at the poor fan-girls Kaname couldn't help but wonder if he had chosen the wrong person to be his queen after all. Left with that thought to ponder upon the pureblood stayed abnormally silent for the rest of the night.

**TBC**

**A/N **okay so this will be the second chapter! Thanks for all you wonderful people who read and thank to the following people:scythe657, ScorpionChick (reviewing) Javaenix kaisabel musicismylife2131 (fav) LordLoveless (follow)

If you review I will send you a preview of the next chapter when I finish part of it^^ so please review? Thanks for reading !


	3. changes

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N Thanks to all those who reviewed! ^^ Hope that you like your preview!**

To stcy since I can't message you… you get your own segment^^ well here is the answer to your question of sorts… The prelude is actually a prelude I used it to let people know which part of the manga I am starting from and also establish the character's personalities. Beginnings it the start of the plot and read it carefully for there is where all the ripples for the plot later on starts^^. If you review for this chapter I will give you a preview to the next one okay? So review!

Thanks to hellwitch for reviewing^^ and also LittleMissMexx. Remember reviewers get previews! And so let's move on.

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and yeah we'll se how we go^^ oh Yeah and some swearing. Sorry forgot to mention that…

**Summary: **Yuki is turned into a pure blood however she has changed. Drastically. Now she is in the night class and refuses to take on prefect duties. Zero is starting to feel that he is changing and although he thinks that it is his decent into level E status Yagari knows that it is something different. Kaname has also taken an interest in Zero but is it real?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^**

†

Zero was cursing his life. He had not slept for a week straight thanks to what seemed like his new and improved painful bouts of supposed bloodlust. When he had crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn to escort the night class back he had been dead on his feet. A point that little Miss Kuran wasted no time in pointing out. The hunter didn't know whom he wanted to shoot more, Yuki or the annoying C class vampires that swarmed around her like flies to rotten fruit. He knew false flattery when he saw it. Yuki evidently did not. The silver haired boy wondered if Yuki had always been like that or was it some attribute to the change? He wouldn't have been surprised if the pureblood's job description contained something along the lines of must be self-important and a jackass.

Now back in his room it was half an hour till class and there was no point in trying to sleep, deciding to attempt to wake himself up by taking a cold shower, the prefect stepped into his bathroom and grimaced when he saw his reflection in the mirror. He looked like shit. The hunter had dark purple shadows under his eyes and made his already sickly pale skin seem nearly blue. His trademark silver hair was disheveled and stuck up at odd angles. The worst thing however was the fact that his eyes were glowing and right on queue a crippling wave of pain struck him and forced him to grab on to the cracked sink in an effort not to fall to the ground. They were definitely getting worse he thought. Before it was just a slight stab now and then but not now. Now he was completely incapacitated by the pain and the only thing he could do was to either choke down blood tablets or wait for it to pass. The prefect considered the tablet option but after some debate discarded it. If he even managed to swallow them in the first place he would most likely end up coughing blood in the middle of class. Wanting to avoid the chairman's overly lavish attentions for the day Zero decided just to skip class.

Curling into fetal position on his bathroom ground the hunter grit his teeth and attempted not to scram from the pain.

≈Ω≈

Kuran Kaname frowned. He was worried about the lilac-eyed hunter. When he had seen him at class changeover the hunter looked barely up to handle standing, let alone the usual horde of fan girls. He had not even had the energy to give Yuki his daily scowl and rude comment when he was insulted. Seriously, the prefect looked like he was going to kneel over any second and Kaname thought it a miracle that the changeover happened without incident. Although he had a sneaking suspicion that the hunter was using purely his enormous amount of will to stay on his feet through out the walk. Kaname had seen the unmistakable signs of an underfed vampire, he had seen enough of those in his time to notice the signs, and Kiryu was showing every one of those signs. What had amazed the pureblood was that in that extent of hunger he doubted even a pure blood would have had the power to resist the call of blood pumping in the day class girl's veins. Kiryu on the other hand made it seem like a slight craving as opposed to the mind fogging need that it no doubt was. It looked like that he really should re-consider who he was going to have as his bride, Kaname mused. In vampire society gender did not matter. What mattered was that one needed a strong companion at their side and Kaname thought that he had found the right one in Yuki but he severely doubted himself.

He would need to think on this, decided Kaname. Did he really care for the hunter? For Kaname did not believe in mating without love, he never did, not in all his many millenniums of life. Kaname sighed. It was ironic that he was the only one left of the seven original vampires that were left. He was the only one that had not taken a mate in all his long years of life, yet he was the only one left alive.

Unbidden a memory sparked in his mind he saw Rido taunting him as he woke from his slumber.

"You shall always be alone," taunted the crazed pureblood "For who would love someone as monstrous as you? Oh ancient one, the first to kill one of their own? You shall be forever hated and alone, you monster" An insane cackle followed and made the pureblood cringe, he didn't believe that he thought, he couldn't. He would go mad. He had to find a purpose to live. He just had to. A pureblood gone mad with no will to live was like a raging storm out at sea. You could do nothing but prey that it would not kill you. Kaname could not, would not do that. He treasured life too much. He could not break, not now. Kaname made himself think of other subjects that would not lead his mind down that path. Paperwork was done, so was his schoolwork. He chuckled at that. He Kaname Kuran, one of the first Vampires had to do homework it was extremely amusing. School, that thought always brought the ever-present prefect to his mind. Kaname knew that just by himself and significantly weakened the young hunter was indeed a force to be reckoned with.

As Kaname thought he wondered if it always was Yuki that he looked after. Could it have been the prefect? He could have killed the boy so many times over in the years that he had known him but he never did. To any on-lookers the Pureblood would have looked like that he received a small jolt of remembrance. However what he had just realized will ultimately change his life. He dared not to think the words but if his assumptions were true, he might really die alone. No he had to believe that the hardheaded hunter would give him a chance. To perhaps win the hunter's stubborn but beautiful heart. Kaname chuckled. It was not the confession to him-self that was the heard part. It was staying alive after he had spewed out his feelings to the prefect. The most likely scenario was to have bloody rose pressed to his temple if he rushed things. No the pureblood decided, he had waited this long for Yuki had he not? He would take his time and win Kiryu Zero, the love of his immortal life. Well, this will be something of a challenge.

†

Zero could not take it anymore. He always had a high pain tolerance but this is beyond anything he had ever experienced before. He knew that he should have know better then to let Cross Kaien of all people have free rein in the kitchen. After taking only one bite of the mysterious goop that the man had so happily piled onto his plate, he promptly went into the bathroom to throw up anything that was still left in his stomach and more.

The hunter wondered how the hell the old man had survived almost two hundred years by himself with his amount of skill in the culinary arts. If he could use the chairman's cooking as a way to kill vampires Zero was fairly sure that by the end of the year all of the bloodsuckers would be wiped out. It was that bad.

Suddenly he felt another bout of pain coming and braced him-self. His last coherent thought was that it would seem that he could not get away from the chairman's attention today after all. The hunter then was swept away by the pain.

≈Ω≈

Takuma Ichijou frowned at the panicked looking man in front of him. The chairman possessed none of the cheerfulness that normally went with his image. Instead the poor man was freaking out and blabbering something about the school prefect and needing to see Kaname. Confused the bubbly vampire let the man in.

Kaname Kuran frowned at the prone figure on the ground. He didn't know if he should salute the hunter or beat some sense in to the stubborn mule. The Idiotic hunter was _still_ refusing to take his blood. Growling Kaname glared at the hunter and spoke.

"You do realize that without my blood you will most definitely go mad right?"

"Shut up Kuran" gritted out the prefect. Kaname was amazed; being able to resist the smell of pure blood was a near superhuman effort on it's own but to be able to understand and respond coherently was nigh on impossible. The pure blood was now sure that he had made the right choice. He would make Zero his queen.

The hard part was to get the hunter to agree to that. Shaking his head of such thoughts for the time being he focused on the problem at hand. The way the Kiryu was going he would undoubtedly fall into the level E stage by the end of the week. Deciding to resort to threats to get the hunter to drink Kaname cut him-self and shoved his wrist near the prefect's mouth.

"I can promise you that if you don't drink on your own I will find a way to force it down your throat." Said Kaname in his quiet voice. " So spare yourself the pain and just drink already." Growled the pureblood. Sighing as he saw the defiant set of the hunter's jaw Kaname resorted to force. Quickly re-slitting his wrist he jerked the prefect's head back and let the blood pore into his open mouth. Then he let the hunter's head come close to him neck. He knew that no matter how strong the boy's will was he would not be able to resist after having a taste. To his shock the silver-haired hunter did not bite down at once. This level of control surpassed that of a pure blooded vampire Kaname was stunned. Just how strong was this youth that could resist the call of blood that many had killed over the years to obtain? Kaname smiled yes this is the strength that he loved the hunter for. His persistence and never ending stubbornness had formed a truly amazing person. Realizing that the hunter still had not bitten the pureblood quickly tilted the prefect's head and impaled the silver-haired boy's fangs in his neck. Wincing at the slight pain as the hunter tried to get away; Kaname felt his respect for the prefect grow. This boy would go far. Sighing in relief when the hunter started to drink he let him-self relax. He knew that Zero was most likely going to hate him in the morning but the prefect was just going to have to deal. Kaname was not going to let his mate out of his sight for long.

†

Zero was disgusted with him-self he had given to the bloodlust _again_. There must have been something wrong with him. Why did the pain come? Why? He thought that it had all ended when he had drained Ichiru but why was it still here? To make matters worse after he had drank Kuran's blood he had felt a sheering pain and it was as if his body had tried to rip it's self apart. He was changing and he could feel it. What he was most worried about was his tattoo. It seemed like that it was fading. It no longer glowed red when he went into his fits of pain like it used to and he swore that some of the lines had moved. Well it was either that or he was finally into the Level E stage although he had never heard of a level E having hallucinations before. It would be just his luck if he turned out to be the first one. He supposed that when it came to the end he could just get Toga to shoot him and be done with it but thinking back he could not ask that of his sensei. The man had done so much for him and he just could not force his master to shoot his own student, the man had enough pain as it was. No he decided if he felt that he could no longer fight the thirst he would put a bullet through his own head with the bloody rose. The chairman the Toga will miss him but the will get over it. They had each other to lean on no one will miss him he thought. It would be better that way.

Toga frowned at his student. It had been his idea for Cross to go get Kaname when he had seen Zero on the ground. He had thought that he pure blood would have helped him. It evidently did not. His student looked worse then before. Toga picked up the phone to dial a number then put it down again, no he thought he might be wrong after all Zero had been bitten by a pure blood and had changed. It was no way that he was approaching his inheritance. Sighing Toga turned from the staff room window where he was watching over his student as he did his daily escorts of the night class to the main school building. It just couldn't be. Could it? Zero was showing all the signs and more but the pain and the blood lust were not supposed to be a symptom of the inheritance. He had to conclude that Zero was still falling and that his lifespan was still extremely short. Yagari sighed. Looking at his desk and spotting an envelope he smile. Perhaps a hunt might distract his student from his brooding. After all whenever Zero got that look on his face whatever he was thinking could not be healthy. Toga collected the job letter from the hunter's association and went to find his idiotic apprentice.

≈Ω≈

Kaname sat in class and dazed. He knew everything that they were teaching anyway. His mind wondered back to the silver-haired hunter and he frowned. He had seen the prefect leave the school just after class change over no doubt going on a hunt for the HA but what worried him was that he was still to return. It rarely took Zero more then three hours to complete any assignment given to him and yet nearly twelve hours later he still had not returned. A worried frown set his face and he continued to stare at the gate. Waiting for the prefect to walk through.

As the sun rose and set again Kaname was seriously getting uneasy. He had seen neither hide nor hair of the hunter for twenty-four hours and more. Class changeover was now supervised by Toga Yagari and the senior hunter too looked worried and stressed. Seeing the Chairman by the gate Kaname frowned. What had happened? Cross no longer carried his usual grin and was looking as serious as he did nearly one hundred years ago when he had earned the name of the vampire without fangs. Kaname began to have a bad feeling that this was bout the hunter that was currently MIA. As he expected Toga came up and gruffly said "Kuran get ready we're going" Blinking at the hunter utterly confused Kaname just stared.

"Don't worry Kaname–Kun the Chairman put someone in charge for now and we'll be back in no time with Zero." If the pure blood would have allowed him-self to have sweat dropped he would. Leave it to the chairman to realize straight away that he had feelings for the silver-haired prefect.

"Ichijou" ordered Kaname "While I'm away you shall be in charge of the night class is that clear?"

"Yes Kaname-sama" came the ever-present reply

"Hey what about me?" came that infuriating whine "I'm the other pure blood here so you should leave me in charge not some half breed!" Yuki winged.

Kaname briefly wondered if it was worth all the trouble and gossip if he just killed his sister right here. Deciding that it wasn't worth it he just put on his best patronizing smile ad replied sweetly.

"Why Yuki you are still inexperienced. Watch and learn from Takuma here and one day I will be sure to put you in charge" that seemed to settle her some what and he quickly left with the chairman before the empty headed fool figured out that Kaname had just suggested that she an almighty pure blood needed the tutelage of some 'lowly vampire'. Had she always been this stupid or had he just been blinded by his own vision of her? Sighing Kaname quickly got into the slick black car that was waiting for them and with Toga driving they went to god-knows where to do hell-knows what.

Toga was tense. He knew that it was not a good idea to take Kaname to see that person but Cross had insisted that the vamp needed to be there. The best-case scenario was the pureblood got away with a few scratches but worst case? They would be going back with a plastic zip-lock bag of pure blood dust. Yagari didn't know which he would prefer more.

As they reached the outskirts of town Kaname thought it was high time that someone explained to him what the heck was going on. "So what are we doing exactly? I presume that you did not just bring me out here for the purpose of sight seeing?" He asked

"No Kaname-Kun" sighed the chairman "we are here to see a person who has the power to find and help Zero" Kaname frowned at this.

"I could have asked the night class to look for him" the chairman smiled grimly at that. "Yes but knowing my Zero-chan he would most likely have put a hunter charm on himself when he went to hunt so the night class could walk right by him without even knowing. He's become that good."

Kaname raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had not realized that the prefect had become that powerful. A hunter charm usually lasted for a few hours at most but to consistently keep it up was a true testament of how powerful the hunter's 'magic' was. It was essentially what made the hunter charms work. They used the person's inner magic. The more you have the more powerful the charm and the longer it lasts. Before hunter weapons were made that was how the Vampire hunter's Association operated. He remembered that the Kiryu's were one of the two most powerful clans there ever was. The neat thing about hunter charms was that while vampire powers used up the wielder's strength and energy and thus it was limited, the hunter charms did not. Thus in a prolonged battle it was most likely that the hunter would win as their use of the supernatural arts did not cost them anything while their vampire opponent would tire quite considerably after the first hour or so. Kaname shook his head, that boy was surely a force to be reckoned with. Looking around curiously as Toga pulled into the driveway of a small cottage like house with a garage in the out skirts of town Kaname thought that it was an ideal place to live. Not too far from the city to seem suspicious and yet far out enough so that no one would venture here without good reason. It provided both a discreet and secure spot. Who ever lived here was an expert warrior. All possible entrance points were facing flat land giving no cover and no neighbors in sight to serve as spies, cannon fodder or hostages. The seemingly innocent cottage may not look it but it was a fortress and as good as they came. Who could live here? Kaname knew that it was most likely a seasoned warrior but he did not know how a wizened old man could help them find Zero.

Seeing Kaname's skeptical look the Chairman chuckled. This was going to be a lesson that the pure blood was not going to soon forget. The very person who lived behind those doors had a hate for pure bloods that rivaled even Zero's. If the chairman was right however Kaname should be able to get out of this unscratched. Walking forward to ring the doorbell Cross knew that the sole inhabitant of the house would have know that all of them were here and had most likely already figured out any if not all of their weak points. For in this house lived what the association members called the shadow, the destroyer, dust, the warrior maid, the black cat and the General. They were all names that this fearsome girl had rightly gained and proved right not only once but also most likely on a daily basis. Both Toga and Kaien knew that if anyone could relate to and help Zero it would be Ying Mei Gwei the last descendant of the Ying clan and along with the Kiryu's the founders of the hunter's association. If the association had any royalty it would be these two families. Frowning when the door creaked open on it's own the chairman peeked in. Yagari hunter to the core saw no advantage in standing outside like idiots and calmly walked in. He was followed by Cross and a very confused Kaname brought up the rear. As they walked down the hall an ordinary sight greeted them. It seemed that the cottage only had three rooms for the dining room; the kitchen and the lounge room had all been joined together forming a large but inviting space. There was also not a single inch of cover or place to hide. Looking around all three men failed to see the grey blur that suddenly dropped form the ceiling and landed silently behind the pure blood vampire. Before anyone could blink the room came to life. Hundreds of weapons popped out of their hiding places with a mechanical click and they were all pointed at one person. Kaname. At the same time the poor vampire felt the barrel of a gun pressed to the base of his head and angled upwards. Without a doubt that if whoever was behind him pulled the trigger not only would his brain be blown to bits but his spine would be severed by the bullet and if he was lucky and depending on the style of the bullet he won't be permanently relieved of the burden that was his head. The voice that then spoke was nothing like the old man's that he had imagined. In stead it sounded that it could not have belonged to a girl of more then seventeen years.

"Cross, Toga. What is the meaning of this? And don't say that you just wanted to visit." The voice was young but the tone was anything but. It carried the air of a battle hardened warrior and a commander. This was proved right as both the men in front of Kaname began to look guilty and a tad sheepish.

"Well Mei-chan Zero-rin's in trouble and we want you to help," said the chairman even managing to look cheerful. However it did not seem to affect the girl, which was evident in her one word answer.

"And?"

"How about you put crimson shadow away and not shoot Kaname-kun?" suggested the chairman. Kaname sighed as the gun left his head. As he turned around he was shocked. The girl looked like the female twin of Zero but also looked like the complete opposite. Her long hair was tied up and he did not know if he should call it black or silver. Normally it was an easy distinction but her hair looked like a very dark silver that was almost black but not quite and when the light hit it differently the color changed. He realized that with more light the lighter it became till in some places it was almost the same color as Zero's but in the shadow it was a lot darker. It should have made her hair look like some weird patchwork quilt but it didn't. With the shimmering colors it looked natural and nice. Kaname realized that without a doubt this girl was a hunter and that hair color would have served her wonderfully as camouflage. Her eyes too were like Zero's but they seemed to the side of red and had startling purple flecks in the iris. The same but opposite Kaname mused it was a good way to describe her indeed.

"Done staring?" came her sarcastic tone and Kaname almost blushed out of embarrassment. He was a pure blood; he should have known better then to openly stare at someone like that. Turning back to the chairman she asked "why's he here?"

This time is was Toga that answered. "I think that Zero might be approaching his inheritance but that's impossible and also I sent him on a mission more then thirty hours ago now and he still hasn't come back." The girl just stared. Then very slowly she asked just one question "did Zero take blood from this person?"

Toga just looked confused "what does that have to do with anything? I thought that he needed the blood and Kuran Kaname was willing" the girl sighed and turned to Kaname

"Sorry for the late intro, I'm Ying Mei Gwei pleased to meet you" Kaname was surprised. He could count the number of hunters who had greeted him politely on one hand and still have fingers to spare. "Pleased to meet you too" he felt obligated to reply. Mei Gwei just raised an eyebrow at him as if she was skeptical about that. Shrugging she turned to glare at Toga. "How long ago did he drink Kuran's blood?" she demanded, "It wasn't just before the mission was it?" It seemed that she was afraid of the answer. "Yes why?" Said Toga the Warrior maid paled. "And he hasn't come back?"

"No" From pale the girl looked murderous. "What in hell's name possessed you to get Zero to fucking drink the blood of a fucking pure blood?" she grit out obviously putting in a lot of effort in order not to commit an act of extreme violence. "What's wrong? He can't have been going into his inheritance could he?" Asked Toga. By the look on the female hunter's face Zero was indeed going into his inheritance. Whatever that meant. Tired of feeling stupid and left out of the loop Kaname spoke up.

"What may I ask is the inheritance?" Mei Gwei looked at him and sighed. "I'll explain later. If Zero has been missing for so long we need to find him fast." As if remembering something she faced the chairman and asked "dose he still wear those earrings of his?" Cross looked puzzled but answered affirmative that Zero did indeed still have his piercings on. Then the most feared General in the Association's history grinned. "Good, now we can find him with ease."

Casually tapping the wall a segment opened up while all the weapons that were still in sight seconds ago vanished just as quickly as they came. From the hole in the wall a laptop computer popped out. "Techno buff" muttered Toga "Technophobe" said Mei right back. She flipped open the lid and seemed to take pity on a now extremely confused Kaname and explained. "I installed a tracker to one of Zero's earrings. The idea at the time was that we could find him if anything happened like him getting kidnapped or shit like that. Now it has its uses because now I can pinpoint his location down to a few meters at least." She said while the thing beeped and blipped. "There" she said triumphantly "got the signal. That means he should be right at…. Shit this is not good"

**TBC**

**A/N **lol cliffie^^ don't you just love me? Anyway please review! Thanks to scythe657 my ever-faithful reviewer! I love you seriously. Also thanks to sakura24394 for following. If you want a preview of the next chapter and not wait two weeks to find out where Zero is…. Review! Thanks!

I have a feeling that I was supposed to say something else here but I forgot so…yeah…


	4. Ledgends

**Learning to love Again**

**A/N IMPORTANT! IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THE CHAPTERS WHEN FIRST POSTED THEM GO BACK TO CHAPTER 2! I just realized that I uploaded the wrong chapter so if you go back and read everything will make a lot more sense!** Oh yeah sorry stcy you were right about your review… I'm sorry! T.T he he he . any way thanks to these guys! ScorpionChick stcy hellwitch KxZ fan girl shuki00 sakura24394 DreamsRemorse chincassandra87 Luciferou Icy eyed Angel snipits42 Lucky Kuro Neko irmina samm0910. Okay after that long list of names… I changed my summery so tell me what you think in a review okay? If it's crap I'll change it back to the original^^ right we can finally start now!

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and yeah we'll se how we go^^ oh Yeah and some swearing. Sorry forgot to mention that…

**Summary: **Yuki is turned into a pure blood however she has changed. Drastically. Now she is in the night class and refuses to take on prefect duties. Zero is starting to feel that he is changing and although he thinks that it is his decent into level E status Yagari knows that it is something different. Kaname has also taken an interest in Zero but is it real?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^**

†

Zero swore. He was on his back with bloody rose jammed in a level E's throat desperately trying to stop the thing from taking a chomp out of his neck. Again. This was getting so old that it wasn't even funny. He had been in situations like this at least more then twenty times in the last half an hour. He should have won a medal for that. He understood that Level E's were like beasts and attacked anything that smelled remotely like blood (having that proven to him while on a mission that ended up in a slaughterhouse. It was not pretty, he had been put off meat for a week) but seriously last time he checked the hunter charm was still working or rather he hope it was still working. The stupid thing about hunter magic was that although it supposedly used one's so called 'inner magic' the caster had no idea when the charm would wear off. It was irritating as hell. Casting a glare around the abandoned construction site the hunter turned around just as he spotted an E charging straight at him not wasting a second to blink the E was dust. Zero frowned when he had first come it had seemed deserted but then about twenty Es had jumped him from the roof. It was not an experience he was eager to partake in again any time soon. Wearily casting a glance around he ventured further in to the construction sight. He remembered that yesterday or something the site had collapsed, trapping and killing many of the workers. It was the vampire equivalent of waving a red flag at an already enraged carnivorous bull. The place would be crawling with E's no doubt.

The silver-haired hunter was getting nowhere and fast. He had been here for the majority of the night and he could see the faint traces of dawn approaching. The place was _still_ crawling with E's. He had lost count after the first thirty or so. From there it was just a matter of staying alive and not getting beat up too badly. Zero knew that if he continued like this he would no doubt die. Whether from the blood loss of his multiple wounds or another group of E's over whelming him _or_ he thought through gritted teeth the damn pain will knock him out and he would be a free meal as he writhed on the ground. Not liking that thought Zero did his best to shove the pain into the box he kept his blood lust. It helped a little but he knew that it was only a temporary solution. Sooner or later he would crumple. He just hoped that it would not be too soon. Heavily bleeding and his left arm almost useless from all the bites and claws aimed at his throat the hunter was easy prey. Stumbling along doing his best not to leave too obvious of a blood trail, the prefect sought a safe place for him to rest for a few minutes before another horde of E's came across the blood and swarmed him. Again. Zero could feel a pattern forming here.

The prefect leaned against the wall from his position on the ground and saw the setting sun through what was left of a window. He vaguely remembered throwing an E through that. Zero knew that he could not hold on much longer. All around him the dust was thick enough to reach up to his ankles and sitting it looked like that he was in some kind of retarded powder. Not that the boy cared. He was numb already from the blood loss and he just watched, as the ground was stained crimson by his liquid life. Distantly he thought he heard the sound of screeching tires and a slamming car door. Great he thought now I'm getting delusions. Not expecting to live much longer the hunter leaned up against the wall and waited for the next E to come and finish him off. It's not like he could have moved anyway, not with the crippling pain and blood loss, he was as good as dead. With that last thought the silverette closed his eyes.

∫**§∫**

Ying Mei Gwei swore that she was going to commit murderer. Hopefully on either Toga or the pure blood. What was the thing's name? Something ran? Guran, Muran? Ah it was Kuran if she was right. That stuck up pain in the ass. She would have shot him if she hadn't seen his face when Zero was mentioned. The thing was in _love_ with Zero. It had better be real she threatened in her head, because if I find that you have hurt him in any was whatsoever you will be getting a one way ticket to hell before you could even say blood. Mei was very protective of the people who she considered close to her. It was just as well that she did not have many people she cared for like Zero or else half of the world's vampire population might get wiped out over night. She wasn't the youngest hunter general in history for nothing. Especially considering the fact that she had held that position for ten years and now with her seventeenth birthday just on the horizon it was truly a feat she was proud of. Not the fact that she obtained such a prestigious title at the tender age of six but because she had survived for so long. The average life expectancy of a general was between six to twelve years for they were the first out on the front lines in battle and the last to retreat. They also took on the most suicidal of missions that no sane person would even think of attempting. However if it was on thing that the girl was good at it was surviving.

Wrenching herself back to the present she focused not to pull out crimson shadow her beloved gun and start waving it around perhaps shoot a few bullets just to get the damn traffic to fucking move! The shadow was not a patient person. Especially when a loved one was possibly writhing in pain on the ground surrounded by level E's. Maybe a Bazooka would get them to frikin move?

Toga could see that Mei was reaching the end of her very short fuse. Knowing her she would not hesitate to breaking as many laws as possible while in a rage. Searching for a topic that could distract her for long enough not to kill people he quickly blurted out

"Why don't you fill Kuran in while we're waiting?" By the evil glint in her eyes this was not a good thing to say right now. "Seriously. If you continue like this then you are going to kill some one. Plus you may as well do something productive while we are stuck in this traffic" Yagari quickly amended to avoid getting hit. To his relief Mei seemed to consider it. When she sighed Toga knew that Kaname's life was just very closely saved. He had known the child general since the moment that she was first revealed to the hunter community. She was labeled as a cursed child. Devil spawn. She is one of the few hunters to be bourn right on the second where the old lunar year ended and the new began. That in it's self was thought to be sign of both a blessing and a curse. The child will be blessed with great strength, true immortality and hunter magic but she will never be able to experience the love of another. That was how the legend was supposed to go any way. Toga was never one to believe such old wives' tales but he could not help but to think that this particular one was true. Mei had been bourn with a twin like Zero but it was a still bourn. The girl had 'absorbed' the un-named being while still early on in the pregnancy. Mystery surrounded her for she was always kept behind closed doors and no one knew what happened to the now feared Ying Mei Gwei for the first four years of her life.

Then the attack happened. The Ying family was wiped out and Mei disappeared. Given up for dead everyone was shocked to find her alive six months later in an abandoned building. It was clear that she had been living on the streets. No one knew what happened and Mei never told. Well either that or whoever knew was damn good at keeping secrets. Now at nearly sixteen years of age the warrior maid lived up to her name. However Toga was getting worried. What kind of teenage girl has never had feelings for anyone? Sighing and immersed in his thoughts he did not hear the long explanation that the said person was giving to a particular pure blood.

≈Ω≈

Kaname waited patiently for the hunter girl to start explaining just what the hell was going on. He did not like the new feeling of being clueless, not one bit. The girl on the other hand was debating if she should tell the leech everything or just the need-to-know facts. By the look on the chairman's face he would never stop bugging her if she didn't just tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. With another sigh she asked in the most civil way she could at the moment.

"Ya got a question ask it." She snapped not in the mood for delicate wording at the moment. Seeing that the chairman was going to start any moment now she said "It's either that or I shoot him just to get my bloody instincts to shut up so just go with it okay?" Turning around without waiting to see if the hyper old man had indeed agreed she stared expectantly at Kaname. "Well?"

The pureblood thought what did he wish to know the most at this moment? Picking a topic he asked "What is wrong with Kiryu taking my blood?" He swore that he heard the female hunter mutter something like self important and bastard. Kaname wondered if he had slightly worded that wrong.

"First what do you know about the hunter inheritance?" said Mei with a sigh exerting inhuman effort to keep her temper in check. "Nothing" Kaname was fairly sure that a vein pulsed on the hunter's forehead at that. "Are you sure that you know absolutely nothing?" The pureblood was sure that if he answered affirmative he would forever be labeled as the stupid person in the girl's mental dictionary. "It might help for you to start at the beginning?" said Kaname as diplomatically as he could. He was just rewarded by a raised eyebrow. Sighing the girl seemed to gather her thoughts and started with one question. "What do you know about the true hunters?" Obviously seeing the pureblood's blank look the girl started.

"Legend says that there was a time in earth's history that vampires were not all powerful like the modern-day purebloods. It states that more frightening monsters existed. There was said to be dragons, daemons, werefolk, the fey, oni and many other monsters that prowled the earth terrorized the humans. However there was one creature that had the ability to kill them all with ease and thus maintaining the balance of the world. They were the hunters. Nobody knows what the hunters were originally. Some say elves, others say battle angles but the only certain thing is that they were powerful, extremely powerful. If you take a normal pureblood's power and doubled that then it will possibly be equal to that a Hunter in his or her normal state. As the eons passed the hunters slowly disappeared. There are many theories as of why each more outlandish then the next but in the end only very few were left. Over the following millennia the hunters became the most prized supernatural. By the start of the rein of the Vampires the hunters had died out. That was the legend anyway" Kaname had a feeling that there was more to this. Mei turned to Kaname and asked, "Do you really wish to know the truth of why the hunters disappeared?" The pureblood could just nod.

"The hunters are originally the first mages and the elves. They refined the magic and the martial arts. Before there were only a few of these warrior elves but overtime they multiplied and soon were given the name of hunter. For they hunted down and killed anything that dared to entered their territory. In the following years they became so different and powerful that the elves shunned them and they were labeled as a completely different race of supernatural. As the daemons and dragons ran the earth the elves retreated to their forest dwellings and cut off all contact with the outside world. The hunters banded together and the two original hunters Kiryu and Ying formed what was known then as the league of warriors. They pledged themselves to the protection of innocent life. Over time the original hunters grew tired of their never ending existence and so looked for a way to end their eternal life. They found it. The only problem was that it took two to participate in the curse that would render them human, stripping both of their hunter lineages. Their children should they have them would also be bourn human. Many hunters chose this path hoping to be able to live a normal life, a peaceful life. However it made them easy prey and thus was killed off one by one. Eons passed and the hunter numbers were decimated. Soon only the most powerful were left. Tired of their endless and now seemingly meaningless existence they sealed themselves to hibernation. That is until the rise of the vampires. The disturbance caused what was left of the hunters to wake. Seeing what was happening to the world Kiryu and Ying decided to give their power to the humans. This weakened them and they too sealed off their power to the level of that of the next generation of hunters. However they were still without argument the strongest of the hunters and soon what was left of the original league of hunters followed suit and sealed themselves in the guise of humans. The knowledge was slowly lost within the ages and soon the hunters became legend. However every hundred years or so 'cursed' twins are bourn into a true hunter family. The conditions must be right or else both twins will die while still in the womb. Zero was bourn on the night that the moon was closest to the earth and was gifted with its power. However true hunter blood cannot be awakened or as we call it inherited if the hunter magic and strength that the child is bourn with is not strong enough. Zero was missing half of his strength since he was not able to absorb back his twin." Kaname opened his mouth to ask a question and seeing this Mei explained before he could voice his words.

"The formation of twins occurs when the embryo splits into two exact copies within the womb right? Thus the hunter strength is also doubled to fit that of two people. As the fetus grows so dose it's power and over time you get two babies. However what would happen if one twin began to re-absorb the other? The one that take would gain, if successful, the power of two hunters within the one body. Add in the Kiryu hunter bloodline and you get one powerful ass hunter. The true hunter blood on the other hand is not activated if the child remains like that. The nature of hunter blood is that it rejects all foreign matter to a certain extent. For example, it would not reject food for it does no damage to the body but things like poison it will instantly repel. That is the only reason why Zero has not fallen to a level E after all these years. Then he drank Shizuka's blood and fully absorbed his twin. The conditions of the inheritance were fulfilled."

"What is the hunter inheritance?" Kaname had to ask.

"The hunter blood fully awakens and the said person regains the power that the original hunters sealed away. That is what's happening to Zero now. Of course there is more to that then just raw power but right now we need to get to him because he drank your pure blood."

Kaname frowned "Again I must ask what is wrong with Kiryu drinking my blood?"

Mei looked at the pure blood in expiration had he not been listening to a thing she had said in the past three minutes? She probably had to spell it out for him.

"The hunter's body rejects any foreign substance and pure blood is a very foreign substance. When Zero drank from Ichiru and passed onto a normal vampire the hunter blood in him automatically awakened from re-absorbing his twin and was able to attempt to expel every molecule of vampire DNA within his own body. As you can imagine it is an extremely painful process and knowing the idiot he probably mistook the symptoms for blood lust and swallowed so many of those stupid blood tablets. Add your pure blood into that mix and you have one pissed off hunter body that is trying to not only get rid of every single bit of vampire DNA that is by now bonded with his entire being but also having to get rid of a cocktail of chemicals, invasive pure blood and to top it all off, this _moron_ makes him go hunting in a nest full of Es!"

By the end of that the female hunter looked ready to start shooting anything that moved. She seemed to be looking for an excuse to kill or severely damage Yagari. Toga being the wise man that he is kept his mouth shut to avoid the possibility of acute death and pain. The chairman being the comedic relief that he always was chose that right moment to say.

"I hate to interrupt but we're here"

In a flash the young general was slamming the car door shut and running towards the abandoned construction site. Completely ignoring the hundreds of signs that warned of danger and police only access. Halfway across what Kaname thought was supposed to be courtyard she yelled without looking back

"Yagari, Kuran follow me Cross you stay in the car!" When the man made a noise of protest Mei just said, "we need a driver." With that she disappeared into the half demolished building closely followed by a cursing Toga. Deciding to go with it for now Kaname quickly followed.

§

Mei was pissed. Very pissed. She had shot her way through sixteen Es and still hadn't found Zero where in the name of all things holy had he put himself? Following the scent of his blood was not helping either. It was either the silver haired hunter had purposely laid so many blood trails that it was impossible to distinguish where one ended and the other began or that the hunter was hurt so badly so many times that it all just merged into one big confusing scent cloud. Muttering every profanity that she knew the girl hurried on searching frantically before a level E decided to make her fellow hunter it's dinner. Rounding the corner what she saw made her want both cry and laugh at the same time. There was Zero deep in at least four inches deep in E dust and covered in blood. Quickly running up she checked his pulse. Panicking for a second when she could not feel it. Then his eyes slowly blinked open, the purple-eyed hunter thought that she had just lost ten years of her life from that. Seeing Toga round that same corner she focused all of her energy into the boy's wounds. Confident that while she was defenseless; Toga would be able to take care of any trouble that came their way. "We need to get him back to my place" She ordered urgently "He won't last if he stays like this for long and I can't heal all of his wounds here, the idiot has got too many."

Toga's only response was a nod and went to pick up Zero just as Kaname rounded the corner.

"I'll carry him," stated the pure blood seeing that Toga was about to protest the general cut in.

"Let him Toga, it will free your hands and let you take point." Seeing battle strategy, as it was Yagari grudgingly agreed. Seeing Kaname scoop up the injured hunter up in bridal style Mei had a feeling that if Zero knew of this he would not be one happy camper. As it is unconscious people did not have a tendency to complain too much. A very useful fact that the shadow had discovered in her years of being a general, if they can't open their mouth or move they can't argue with you. The four rapidly made their way to what was left of the front door only to be cut off by what seemed like the rest of the Es in the building. Seeing that they were not going to get out without a distraction the warrior maid quickly yelled to Toga.

"I'll get them as soon as you see an opening run to the car and drive I'll get there before you leave got it?" Seeing the elder man nod Mei slightly shifted her position and was off in a flash yelling only one word "NOW!"

Yagari did not need to be told twice. Grabbing the pureblood's arm the two ran like their lives depended on in to the waiting car. Just as they were about to reach it a group of Es landed in front of them but before anyone could so much as blink every single one of them turned to dust. As it settled they clearly saw the general standing in a perfect circle of shimmering vampire dust with a naked sword in her hand. It was a brilliant silver sword that gave off a blue glow. The blade looked like something crossed between a Chinese halberd and a katana. The only difference was that unlike the traditional halberd and katana both sides of the sword was sharpened and the blade was covered in what looked like black Celtic runes. If one were to look closely the runes would be ever changing and shifting making the weapon look alive. In a way it was although it only followed the wishes of its master and no one else. "If you're done gawking can we please go before another horde of Es decide that it's a good idea to make us their dinner?" with that the strange and mysterious girl got in the car and waited for the rest of the 'mere mortals' to catch up.

≈Ω≈

Kaname looked down at his sleeping mate. The boy looked so fragile and innocent without his ever-present scowl. If Kaname was being honest to himself the young hunter that was on the bed before him covered in bandages looked like an angel that had just fallen down to earth. The sun was starting to rise so he knew that the rest of the night class would begin to grow un-easy of his prolonged absence but he could not find the energy to leave this boy's side. Smiling slightly he shook his head. He must be getting obsessed. Unable to resist the urge to touch the hunter again Kaname gently cupped his hand on the hunter's cheek. Much to his surprise the normally cold and distant hunter leaned into his touch and sighed. Right there and then Kaname knew that his suspicions were correct. This hunter was indeed his mate. Unbeknownst to him Kaname was not the only one that had witnessed the silver-haired hunter's reaction to his touch. From the door way a pair of gem like purple eyes kept watch only to turn away when they saw the pureblood stand up. Mei had seen all that she needed to see. It seemed that the injured hunter had found one of his life's mates. The girl could not help to smile at that. True hunters always had two mates. No more no less. She had suspicions that this stemmed back to their Elvin origins. Her theory was that as the hunters became a different race they took mates within that race but as they were still elves they had an Elvin mate as well. Thus a true hunter would always have two mates by their side. Shaking her head dust seemingly disappeared into the many shadows of the house just as Kaname stepped out. Your in for some hard times mused the shadow pure bloods are not known for taking no for an answer. Especially when it comes to their mate.

†

Zero groaned. He hurt all over. It felt like that he had been run over by a steamroller at least five times. Slowly blinking, he opened his eyes he was immediately on guard. This was not a room he was familiar with. Instantly his brain had cleared away the last dregs of sleep and was forming scenarios at a maddening pace. Had he been kidnapped? No the last thing he remembered was a swarm of Es. Straining he memory he remembered himself being too injured and in too much pain to move, a slamming car door, cursing, someone picking him up, the inside of a car and his last memory stopped a being laid down on a bed. Eyes scanning the room a taking in every detail he failed to hear the door open and close. Thus he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a voice next to his head.

"Don't worry your safe" turning his head so fast that he was sure that he should have gotten whiplash he saw the multicolored haired girl standing by the bed that he was lying on.

"Mei-chan!" he blurted out in surprise "what are you doing here? "

The girl just chucked "well considering it's my hose where else would I be? I need a place to sleep too ya know." Zero blinked and asked "your house?"

His efforts were rewarded by a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic answer of "oops I made a mistake it's not my own house that your at it's some random person's place" rolling his eyes at the jab the lilac eyed hunter looked around and asked "what happened? I though that I was going to die."

At this Mei narrowed her eyes and said, "You would have if hadn't gotten there when I did. Do you know how stupid you were to go out there on your own while in the process of obtaining your inheritance? Five more minutes and your heart would have stopped!"

The silver hunter just stared. "My inheritance? But that's impossible! I was bitten by a pureblood vampire I shouldn't be able to get my inheritance!"

Mei sighed and with a slightly annoyed look on her face she asked

"Did your parents reach their inheritance? Did Ichiru? Did anyone who was bourn into a true hunter family reach their inheritance before absorbing a twin and being bitten? If you can find any such person in the modern hunter's history then please say so and I will proclaim it a miracle. Give yourself more value!" Then the girl's face softened and said, "Being self loathing doesn't suit the Ze-chan that I know is still there. So give yourself more credit okay? I'm pretty sure that no one hates you as much as you hate yourself. You have enough hate from the world already. There's no need to add to that. Okay?"

Zero looked down onto the white sheets and muttered a soft affirmative. He wasn't sure if he could end all of his self-hatred but he could see his childhood friend's point. Plus now that he was not turning into a bloodthirsty beast he figured that he should follow her advice. He would try, it may not work but kami help him he was going to try. Seeing the girl smile he thought that it might be time for him to move on. He was done clinging onto the past he was now looking to a future that he never knew that he had. The hunter had never felt this at peace in years. Hell did he even know the meaning of peace? Zero chuckled, that was moot point he was a hunter and they will never know the true feeling of a life without battle. However he found that he was okay with that, it was in his blood and now it was something that he could be proud of again. Pulling himself out of his soul searching he said "I'll give it a shot. I'm not saying that I'll let everything go all at once but I'm willing to try."

The shadow smiled and said, "That's all I ask for. Now brace yourself I'm letting the Chairman in." Again following the girl's advice Zero steeled him-self for impact and sure enough as soon as the door opened a fraction a bundle of snot and tears attacked him.

"Zero-rin! Daddy was soooo worried about you! WAHHHHH! Give your Daddy a hug!" Gritting his teeth the only thing Zero could do in his condition was to keep as much snot and tears off of himself as possible. Mei seeing that the boy might be in pain quickly said

"Um Chairman? Zero's still injured and I think it would be best if you refrained from attempting to strangle him? I'm pretty sure that one near-death experience is enough in two day's don't you think?" Zero was forever thankful when the clingy old man stopped mistaking him for an over-sized stress toy at her words. He was extremely relieved when the crazy old man went off to tell Toga the good news that he was up. Turning back to the girl at his bedside he asked,

"What happened?"

"Well how should I put this?" muttered the said girl "To cut things short Toga and Cross came over with the pure blood coz they were worried that ya hadn't come home from a hunt in like nearly thirty hours or something so they drove over here for help. Why they didn't come earlier I have no idea. So to cut the chase we tracked ya earring and hightailed it out of there. By the time we got ta Yah you were bleedin like there was no tomorrow an we, well Kuran, carried ya back to the car. Ya passed out sometime after we got there and ya've been sleepin ever since. About twelve hours have passed and I healed most of ya wounds around the six-hour mark but apart from that it should be fine. Just don't take any more blood tablets or Kuran's blood got it?" The bed-ridden boy nodded and made to sit up. Seeing this the girl quickly propped him up with pillows. Zero was thankful that Mei had reverted back to how she spoke when they were alone and not the usual matter-of-fact voice that she normally showed the world. It helped Zero to know that not everything was gone. A fact that the girl must have been aware of, judging by that slight smile on said girl's face.

"So what happens now?" asked Zero truly curious.

"Well since you decided to be such a suicidal genius and nearly get yourself killed you are staying with me till I pronounce you healthy enough for school. Also while you're here I suppose that I should teach ya how to use your newfound powers. Ya need to be able to control them before I let you loose on the world so ya in for a busy couple of days!" Zero nodded. It was reasonable and he did not mind staying with Mei. She was able to understand him that no one else could. It might have something to do with the fact that although she was a year younger she too was a true hunter and thus they could relate to each other. Like Lily her company was one of the few that he genuinely enjoyed constantly. Both of them did not need to fill silence with chatter and only spoke when need be. It was a quality that he employed himself. Silence was so much better then meaningless chatter he decided. Although he might be a little biased being the highly anti-social person that he was. It had been Ichiru that had done all of the talking not him. Zero sighed. He really should let go of the past. Not forget, no it would be a fate worse then death to forget but to make peace and move on. Glancing back at the girl just as she was about to leave the room he asked,

"Is there something to eat? I haven't eaten in days…" The female hunter smirked and said

"A bowl of rice porridge coming right up!" At that Zero nearly pouted. Seeing the boy's reaction Mei chuckled.

"Ya stomach would hate you if ya shove strong food down it when ya haven't eaten in such a long time." Knowing that he was not going to win this argument the hunter resigned him-self to plain meals for what will most likely the rest of the day. Suddenly Mei stuck her head back through the door and said

"Kuran's coming to visit when the night class is over. Since Toga is coming with him I couldn't say no so prepare yourself." Zero was confused. Prepare him-self for what? Wasn't Kuran just coming to check that Yuki's precious shield was still functioning? Surely that was all? Shrugging and putting it down to Mei's legendary hate for pure bloods Zero pushed it to the back of his mind and took comfort in the thought that at least now with no hold over him Kaname would have nothing else to do with him and finally leave the silver haired boy alone.

What the poor hunter did not know was that it was just the beginning and he was in for a very rough few months of constant pure blood attention.

§

Mei was in the kitchen knowing full well that Zero had not followed her most important piece of advice. However she had expected that, she was not going to attempt to hinder the relationship for she knew that it was already set in stone the moment Kuran acknowledged Ze-chan as his mate. Although kami help her if she was going to make it easy on the pure blood by pushing them together. If the leech wanted Zero he would have to prove to Mei first that the thing was worthy to be with Ze-chan. She would accept nothing less. Not when it came to the only one she had left in the world. Finishing off the porridge with that thought she started to make her way to the room that Zero was currently occupying when the doorbell rang. It was Toga with Kuran. She could sense it. It was a perk to being a hunter. One could distinguish and see auras. Not only was it a good indicator of emotion but it also meant that no one could imposter anyone else while in her presence. All auras were different and no aura could be duplicated. All in all it was a very useful tool to have. Pressing a hidden button on the wall that would automatically unlock the door she yelled a come in and made her way to Zero's room. She figured that it would be best if he had some kind of morale support concerning both Toga and Kuran. It wasn't that Yagari was one of those annoying people that just would not listen it was that he was stubborn and it generally took a few good hits to get something into his thick skull.

This man would not easily accept Kuran's feelings for Zero. What the said person would find even harder to stomach was the ultimate that sooner or later Zero would grow to love the pure blood in turn. Such was the way of mates. Mei sighed she could feel a headache coming on already and Zero had only been at her house for less then twenty four hours. Rubbing her temple with her free hand she mentally prepared herself for the ruckus that was sure to follow Kuran's speech. The shadow vaguely wondered how Cross would take it. Perhaps he could help cool Toga off when he found out? Filing that plan away for later analysis Mei opened the door to the injured boy's room tray loaded with plain food in hand.

**TBC**

**A/N: **sorry for the late update guys! I had exams. But hopefully I will be back to regular writing soon! Please Review! If you do I'll give you a preview! Pretty please? Oh and thanks to the following! NamikazeMia xXCherryMassacreXx Grimangel1120! Please drop a review?


	5. issues

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N **sorry for taking so long guys I had some seriously long exams so yeah… sorry! Anyway here we go thanks to these guys: hellwitch, ScorpionChick, LittleMissMexx, Luzydeath, CaPiTalStoRieS, NamikazeMia, cool-girl027, Moomi, YuumikiNakashi, tdjs. Here you go guys! Please review! Please?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

†

Zero moaned in pain. He was propped up in pillows and it was not a good angle for his wounds. To make matters worse he felt as if his arm was going to drop off. In hindsight it probably wasn't such a brilliant idea to use his arm as a shield. He was certainly paying for it now. Here was hoping that hunters had advanced healing like vampires or else he would be seriously worried about his life. Just as he was thinking Mei walked back in the room bringing with her the wonderful smell of porridge. He was famished, eyeing the food like a blind man seeing the world for the first time, the hunter was sure that he was drooling. The sharp-eyed girl must have seen this if the amused smirk on her face was anything to go by.

"Don't even think of inhaling this. You'll end up feeling like ya gonna puke any second. Not a good thing when ya tryin' ta get rid of all that blood ya ingested."

With the last comment she fixed him with a hard glare.

"At least you didn't take as much as I would have expected, good job. That must have taken some will power to resist. I'm impressed."

Zero shook his head and refused to take the undeserved flattery.

"I gave in to the temptation though. I drank from him in the end. I couldn't resist."

"Did you really? Let me guess you didn't take his blood till he forced it into your mouth right? And you only took some and spat the rest out later right?"

The hunter looked at her in shock. How had she known? Seeming to see his question she smiled an answered.

"I know ya and I know how strong your will power is and combine that with your natural stubbornness and your hatred for vamps and ya got one resilient hunter known as Zero"

This time the silver haired teen took the sort-of compliment. Seeing that the older teen was listening Mei nodded in satisfaction. She knew that it would not be easy to get rid of the older boy's guilt but she wished to be able to get him to see that he was one of the most strong willed people she had ever met. The problem with Zero was that he was quick to see the worth in others but it was like pulling teeth without anesthetic to get him to find even a milligram of worth in himself. She knew that it would take time but she also knew that she would get there. She was determined to let Zero see what a strong person he was even if it was just a fraction of his real strength. It was essential; otherwise he might never truly get together with his mate. The shadow was not about to let one of her only friend and family left in the world to miss the chance with his mate. Not a chance, she may not like the pureblood but he was Ze-chan's mate. Internally sighing she watched as Zero happily stuffed food in his mouth.

At times she was tempted to take the bowel from him as to stop the guy from chocking himself on the porridge but she stopped herself reminding herself that he was a guy and it was generally normal behavior for people who have not eaten for days to gobble stuff down. Shaking her head fondly she watched as he finished with a contented smile on his face.

Zero was feeling very warm and fuzzy. He was watered and fed and the pain had dulled leaving him with a short time of relief. Like any good soldier he decided to take the opportunity to get some sleep while he could. Twisting slightly and pushing away the pillows carefully as to avoid re-opening his various wounds the hunter attempted to find a position to sleep in that was both comfortable and caused him the most minimal amount of pain. It was no small task as the teen was sure that he was completely covered in cuts and bruises. It was a miracle that he wasn't black and blue all over. Although he could not say for sure as he was yet to see himself in the mirror. Truthfully he wasn't sure if he wanted to.

Shaking the possible image of how beat up he must look he laid down the bed, casting a thankful look at his nurse for the time being Zero settled himself down to some much needed sleep. Little did he know that soon he was about to get a very rude awakening featuring one particular pureblood that he had no interest in seeing anytime soon.

§

Seeing that Zero had fallen asleep the girl walked out of his room and quietly closed the door. She didn't think it was a good idea for him to be asleep right now considering the fact that a very possessive pure blood was going to be present soon but the boy needed rest. Allowing one side of her mouth to lift up in a half smile she wondered how the hunter would react when he woke to find the pure blood. The female hunter had taken care to leave bloody rose under the silverette's pillow and weighed the possibility that the awakening hunter would notice. The Warrior maid could not wait for the show. It was sure to be entertaining; even if she would most likely not be there to witness it her-self there would be hidden cameras so she would be able to see everything after they left. Chuckling she went to retrieve more of her remarkably depleted first aid supplies. She had a feeling that she would need a lot more soon. As the girl made her way to the hall she stopped dead at a very amusing sight. Again all the weapons in the hall were trained on one very uneasy looking pure blood vamp and an equally cautious Toga. Fighting down sniggering all the way she went to free the two unfortunates all the while making a mental note to use systems bypass for the vamp. She had a feeling that he would be visiting quite often in the next week or so.

≈Ω≈

Kaname was pissed. There was on other word to describe it. It had been twelve hours already but he _still_ hadn't heard anything about the condition of the hunter. His logical mind was telling him that there was no immediate danger to his mate but his instincts weren't buying it. Thus as a result he was scaring the crap out of the night class teachers while they stumbled over their words and tried not to show that they really _really_ didn't want to be there at that particular moment. On a normal day the pure blood would have found this highly amusing however right now he didn't have the space of mind to pay them any attention. All of his thoughts were focused on a particular silver haired hunter that was injured at the moment.

It did not help things that his sister was acting like an octopus and refusing to let go of his arm for more then half a millisecond. Vaguely in the back of his mind he wondered if the night class was taking bets on how long the new pureblood would survive. Spotting Toga through the window Kaname quickly but smoothly rose and ignoring the half spoken protests walked gracefully out of the room making a point to extract his arm from the tentacles of his sister as he did so. He did not want to deal with her annoying presence today.

Sparing a nod to 'Toga sensei' the two men left without so much as a proper greeting to each other. Both of their minds occupied by mutual distaste and an injured hunter.

The pureblood stood stock still not daring to move an inch incase he did something to set off the insane amount of hunter weapons pointed at him. From the corner of his eye he could see the Toga wasn't moving either. It seemed that the one-eyed hunter wasn't going to risk being skewered. Kaname almost sighed in relief as he heard the foot steps of the owner of this ridiculous house come down the hall to wards them. He swore that the girl was holding back laughter once she caught sight of their predicament. Calmly pressing a button on the wall she said

"Zero's room is down the hall and the second door to the right. I'll put you guys on system override later. Just remind me before you go." Kaname was fairly sure that she was laughing at him. Putting that thought away for not he walked down the hall towards where he could smell his mate not even caring if the others followed. Dimly he heard the general start a conversation with Toga but as it sounded like that it had to do with the hunters association and nothing to do with Zero he ignored them and kept walking. In his opinion it was better if they didn't follow. He heard the door close and the sound of their car leaving so he knew that Toga had gone back to the academy to take up the prefect's duties. Opening the door and letting himself in the pure blood was surprised to find that the hunter was still asleep. Feeling an urge to give his bride a hug he climbed onto the bed and settled himself down beside the boy. Surprised yet again that the hunter tried to get closer to him the pure blood turned the hunter back over to his original position in fear of aggravating the fresh wounds. However again the hunter turned over in an attempt to snuggle up to him. Giving up Kaname moved to the other side of the bed so that Zero could be close without turning over. The only thing Kaname was not happy about was the fact that this put Zero's un-protected back to the door and his instincts did not like that at all. Shoving a pillow behind the hunters back was the best he could do at the moment but it allowed his over-whelming desire to protect calm down and the Pure blood soon felt drowsy and slipped into the grasp of a deep peaceful sleep with his mate in his arms.

†

Zero felt fuzzy, warm and content. It might have something to do with the fact that he was being assaulted by an amazing scent. It smelled of leather, soap, fresh rain and something sweet that he could not place. It smelt like home. For whatever reason he had no idea. His old house had smelled of freshly cooked food, gunpowder and whatever the hell his father was using to clean and look after his weapons with at that time. The chairman's place was like a second home but that normally smelled of both Cross's and Yuki's failed cooking attempts and the faint smell of their combined scents. His room in the school just smelled like him and dust. Underlying that was the sickening smell of blood, but this made the hunter feel safe and content. In fact the heavenly scent was so strong that it was making him light headed. Unconsciously he nuzzled further into what he thought to be the source of the smell only to have his face hit something that that felt like a warm body. At that second his hunter instincts decided it would be a good time to return to him and the natural alarm bells that he possessed began to scream in his head that he was lying right next to a pure blood vampire. That jolted Zero up right away. It was drilled into every hunter not to ever ignore your instincts. They tell you to duck you duck, to jump you jump for most of the time it would surely mean the difference between life and death, or a fatal injury if you were lucky.

So with his head screaming that he was trapped in the arms of a pure blood vamp it was obvious that his reaction was to spring away. That however only served to cause him to greet the carpeted floor of his sick room with a painful sounding thud.

≈Ω≈

Kaname groaned and shifted. He was feeling so good as well. It was the best sleep he had had in a long while. Frowning he wondered what could have awakened him then he noticed that the boy which had started out in his arms when he drifted off was now on the carpeted floor and glaring at him as if hoping that he would just spontaneously combust on the spot. Deciding it would be safer to keep his silence the calmly stared at the enraged hunter waiting for the boy to speak first. Sure enough Zero did not disappoint as the first thing that came out of his moth was "You bastard" and very closely followed by "What the fuck were you doing?"

Deciding to tease the adorable boy further, he stated in a matter of fact voice and said "sleeping"

Kaname had to almost bend over to stop him-self from laughing as he pretty much saw the pulsing vein pop up on the hunter's head. He swore that he saw the hunter's eye twitch.

"I don't give a fuck where the hell you sleep Kuran." Gritted out the silverette

"What I meant was what the fuck are you doing in my bed and why in all of god damn hell are you here?" Smirking and thinking that the boy was just too fun to mess with Kaname replied, "What's wrong? I just wanted to spend some quality time with my mate." That just earned him a confused look.

"What the hell does spending time with Yuki have to do with me? Did you lose some marbles or hit that arrogant head of yours or something?"

At that Kaname couldn't help but to laugh. Which possibly only further enhanced the suspicion that he had gone off the deep end. "I didn't mean my sister you silly boy" chuckled Kaname "By spending some quality time with my mate I meant _you" _

"Huh? Okay it's either I'm having a seriously messed up nightmare or you've officially gone off the deep end. Unless you have useless pits for eyes you would have already seen that I'm a _guy"_

Kaname smiled "In vampire society no one gives 'half a rat's ass' as you would put it about gender, and as for that nightmare comment I assure you this is perfectly real and not a dream. Nor are you having delusions of any kind. As of right now you are considered by me as my mate and I shall act towards you as such."

"Just shoot me now" muttered the hunter "Go choose your-self another fucking mate coz this one ain't willing."

"Ah but that's the problem Zero I didn't choose it. It just happened."

"Don't call me by my first name only! And what the hell do you mean 'it just happened'?"

"Exactly what I said. It just happened."

"Ahhhhhhhh" half yelled the hunter "Your one annoying son-of-a-bitch you know that?" Yep decided the pure blood it was way to fun messing with his cute hunter.

"Okay" said the hunter through gritted teeth "Just tell me what the fucking shit is going on and explain the whole mating bullshit."

Kaname smiled. It looked like that the boy was starting to accept.

"I have no control over who I mate with. Nor do any other vampires. It is for life and if you die I might go insane or suicidal, either one. Let me make this clear it is not about simple re-production and the survival of a bloodline it is a matter of the soul. You have heard the term soul mates before right? This is where it comes from. And before you ask no- it will not turn off or 'go away'. Ever."

"And do I have any say in this?"

"No"

"Bastard"

"It's not just one-sided Zero, you will come to love me too."

"Wait! Who the fuck said any shit about love?!"

"I said it was a matter of the soul right? One can live right next to their mate for their whole life and feel it if they don't know them. You need to know the other's very soul in order for you to recognize them as you mate."

"That does not answer my fucking question"

Suddenly the door opened and Mei stepped through. "I can answer that question since I don't think the vamp understands what you asking. The most the mating pull can do is create a large amount of obsession towards the mate but love is impossible to be created just because of a mating bond. What Kuran meant by knowing the soul was that you have to love them yourself first, then if they are your mate, one would feel it. That is all."

"So I'm stuck with this guy?"

"Yep"

"But you said that love had to happen first!"

"Yes but for one partner only. Mates are two halves of a whole after all and if one half recognizes the other then the wheels have already been set in motion and the future carved in stone" cut in Kaname.

"So your telling me the at the second that this guy fell in love with me I was doomed?"

"I wouldn't go that far," muttered the pure blood the exact same second Mei said "yep"

"Screw fate and destiny and that shit it's not going to happen"

Kaname sighed and here he thought he might have gotten off without a hitch. He really should have known better. The hunter was one of the most stubborn people he ever knew and considering his long life that's saying something. The pure blood turned to Mei and said, "Would you mind if I visited this weekend?"

"Sure it's fine with me" was the reply along with Zero's protests of "no you may not bastard" smiling slightly to himself Kaname then stood up and on his way out he said "I will show my self out. Oh and by the way has that security system of yours been fixed?"

"Don't worry. You're on the by-pass list now. If you decide to bring anyone along you'll have to tell me before hand though."

"Of course" Replied the pure blood. He never intended to bring any of the night class here, mostly because he was highly protective of his mate at the moment especially when said mate did not acknowledge him and thus put his instincts on overdrive. It would be bad if he accidently killed someone just because they got too close. The sate he was in at the moment did not guarantee anyone's safety. With that thought Kaname found him-self at the gates of the academy having chosen to take advantage of his speed while he thought. Although technology had improved considerably over the past centuries he was still faster then any car. Making sure that his usual icy mask was in place he walked into the academy ready to face another round of never ending questions.

†

Zero was glowering at the wall and sulking although he would never admit it. It seemed to amuse the female hunter immensely.

"I still don't get the whole mating shit. What the hell is it about?" muttered Zero

Mei just sighed, "Weren't your listening before?"

"Uh yeah no. I was a tad pre-occupied with the thought that Kuran, Kaname Kuran of all people decided it would be an excellent time to mess up my life and torture me even further by pretty much claiming me as his kami-damned property! And don't say it's not like that. Mates are possessive as hell and a simple level c is known to take on vampires much higher then them in the pecking order just because of a mate. Why the hell did it have to be me?! You sure it wasn't a mistake?"

"That is a shit load of questions. Which one do you want me to answer first?"

"How about the mating shit."

"You know that love potions and charms don't really exist right? The most they can do is form a large feeling of obsession over a certain object or person. It's the same with the mating thing."

"So he's obsessed with me" cut in Zero "Great just great."

"Will you shut up and let me finish?" seeing the silverette's pouting expression the girl continued. "For the mating bond to take effect one of the pair must thoroughly love and know the other or else it would never be activated. That's what he meant by the whole knowing the soul thing. To be able to love someone truly you must see down to their very soul and only then can you say that you truly love that person. Think of it like the inheritance of the hunters. Certain events must happen before hand or else no mater how long you live and what people you interact with it will never happen if the conditions are not fulfilled. Do you get it? He loved you before he knew that you were his mate. I possibly suspect that he began to love you a long time ago but was in denial or mistaking person that those feelings were directed to."

"So your saying that he loves me."

"Yep"

"Nope no buying it"

"Denial will get you no where"

"I'm not in denial kami-be damned! I the fuck ain't gonna be his fucking mate!"

See in the girl just sigh Zero had a feeling that concerning this matter he might not win no matter how hard he protested. However he would be damned before he would just roll over and be the property of a fucking pureblood. No one was going to own him, not if he could help it. Suddenly remembering he asked "What about my other questions?"

"You mean why did it have to be you and if it might be a mistake? Sorry to disappoint but it can't be a mistake coz the mating pull and all the instincts that come with it can't be artificially produced and as for why you, your gonna have to ask your mate about that."

"For the last fucking time he's not my fucking mate!"

"You think that"

Zero just groaned and contemplated banging his head against the wall a couple of times. Taking stock of his half healed wounds he decided that he had enough to deal with and the whole mating shit was already giving him a head ach. "Ah screw it I'm going back to sleep" with that he climbed back into bed and promptly rolled over. It seemed that his wounds were healing faster then his normal rate and considering the fact that he already had accelerated healing, it was a very good thing.

§

Mei watched as the pure blood walked down the hall and turned to Toga. "How are the things at HQ?" she asked worried

"Well the whole place is in an uproar as predicted," replied the one-eyed hunter "The fact that Kuran has stated clearly to the night class and therefore the whole vamp population that Zero's his mate has the hunters shaken. Combine that with the boy's awakening and it's a prefect recipe of suspicion and trouble. It might be a good thing that he's injured or else they would drag him in for an audience. My main concern is the president though. He's up to something again."

"I don't doubt you on that one" muttered the general "There are seriously high suspicions that the she-man might have used vampire blood and other illegal means during that time but we don't have any proof. What I'm worried about is what's the president plotting now. He's been too quiet about this whole affair and being the right wing fruitcake that he is, it can't be a good thing. However I have a question to ask. What do _you_ think of the mating?"

"I'm not fond of it that's for sure" muttered the elder man "but I'm not stupid either. I have accepted what's going to happen and I know that their nothing I can do but I would like as little to do with it as possible. I won't interfere but I don't like it either."

"As long as you don't go ballistic or something like that I think it will be fine. Just be there for Zero when he needs it."

"Yeah" chuckled the man "My idiot apprentice is gonna need all the help he can get while he's being stubborn" the two hunters chuckled and Toga said "I've gotta go and take the prefect duties. Kuran can find his own way back. See ya later."

"Huh?"

"Your officially enrolled into the academy now"

"WHAT?! What the fuck did that moronic chairman do?! Can't I refuse?"

"Gonna have to take it up with him"

"Fine, I'll lay it on him later. Have a safe trip." Mei watched the door close and sighed. Seriously what did she expect? She should have known that she would be put into the school. The chairman was like a bloody croc once he got his teeth into something no way was he going to let it go. Muttering curses in all the languages she knew she walked into Zero's room just in time to get to see that she had missed the more fun parts of the argument. Ah well she had it on tape. Here's hoping that it would be something amusing. She really needed something to lift mood right now.

Mei glowered at the chairman "I an not goning to wear thins ridiculous outfit in public. No way in all of frozen hell is that going to happen."

"Awww but you would look so cute!" gushed the man. Mei could make out flowers and sparkles in the background. That did it. She was so not going to go anywhere near the stupid skirt. Sighing she took the clothes making a mental note to create a bonfire later when the chairman wasn't looking. Things were gonna burn. At least she knew where the uniform shop was. She'll go and pick up some of the guy's pants later. Seeing as how in the academy shorts were not available for either gender. What the crazy old man was thinking when he made that decision Mei would never know. For now she had to get to her room and un-pack. Why did she let her self be talked into this? Oh yeah because she was a sucker for guilt trips. All Cross had to do was make puppy eyes and rant about how his only son 'who was still not fully into his inheritance and thus venerable' was still the only form of defense the school had against it's vampires and fan-girls that made Mei give in. Stupid stupid habit of hers. Depressed she walked into her room and began the task of unpacking. She would install her 'security systems' later after she got back from the grand tour. This was going to be so fun. Ah sarcasm. Can't live without it.

†

Zero stood by the crowd of screaming girls looking slightly worried. It wasn't for himself it was for the girls. Mei looked like that she was going to bash some heads together if they didn't shut up. If he thought that vampire hearing was bad then this was twice as worse. Now he could hear their every word in perfect clarity. Before the sound of the pumping blood always served as a nice distraction against the noise but now that the urge was almost all gone he had nothing to focus on. He could hear every shout, scream and kya. It did not help things that. Sounds like footsteps and the sound of moving cloth had become sharper as well. When he had just vampire hearing it was there but in the background half muffled now everything was on full blast. If he had to describe it, it was like a radio. Humans only heard the very soft stations vampires were the perfectly tuned while a true hunter's hearing was like being right next to the bloody band that was playing the music. He seriously pitied Mei at the moment he knew for a fact that his hearing was only going to get better and if it was already this bad he couldn't imagine what it must be like for her. She had said something about seals but it was just a mutter and he had no idea what she was on about. Making a note for later he braced himself as he heard the day class girls collectively draw breath.

As predicted the second the gates opened the noise became louder. Zero looked across at Mei to see how she was holding up. At least she had them in an orderly line. Much more useful then Yuki -who couldn't even able to handle standing up right. Let alone any form of order. He felt someone's eyes on him and when he glanced around to find the source of it he met the gaze of Kuran. Again. He swore that the vamp was stalking him or something. Wherever he went in the school he would feel the gaze. The only place he had to himself now was Lily's stable and he had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't remain that way for long. Seeing Kuran junior strut up to Mei who was on the first day of her job he settled back to watch the show. Yuki was going to get a schooling guaranteed.

§

Mei thought that her head was going to explode. Can these girls possible get any louder? Suddenly the all screamed in unison as the gates of the night class opened. Spoke too soon. Why oh why did she have to be here? Did she kill a couple of kings in her past life or something? At least the hyperactive schoolgirls were listening to her. Otherwise she might have resorted to violence. She watched as Kuran fixed his gaze on the silver haired hunter and did a mental count down of three seconds and sure enough Zero looked up and directly met the gaze of the vamp without so much as a flinch. You had to hand it to the boy. He had guts. Seeing a night class girl strut up to her she turned to face the girl that she thought was Kuran's stuck up sister. Mei had been here for less then twenty-four hours and she had already heard all about the ex-prefect. Stuck up, self important, demanding and annoying, all in all the general had yet to hear one good word about the Kuran girl. To her amusement there was even a hate club for her. Form what she could gather even many of the night class had more then half the mind to sign up. Hey she wasn't called the shadow for nothing, she knew how to get information. The warrior maiden watched in amusement as the girl strutted up to her. This was going to be fun.

"What do you think your doing?" demanded Yuki. Deciding to play with her Mei answered deadpanned "Keeping these fan girls from killing you"

"Hah! They can't kill me! I'm a Kuran!"

"Umm yeah then what the hell happened to your parents?"

"They were weak!"

"If they were weak the what about you does that make you pathetic? Because form what I heard you can't even throw a proper punch"

"I am a princess! I have others to fight for me. I shall not degrade myself to that level" said the girl in a stuck up tone.

"I will gladly be there at your funeral" replied Mei with a vicious smile causing the ex-prefect to take a couple of steps back.

"A-anyway." Stuttered Yuki trying to sound unfazed and failing miserably "I heard that you have take up my old job as the prefect. As a girl myself I will give you some generous advice. First of all don't wear the boy's trousers any longer for they do nothing to your figure. Also I would love to offer you some tips about the job just ask me when you need." I might have seemed friendly if she hadn't said it in such an annoying superior tone. Add to the fact that Mei did not appreciate being bossed around by anybody it did not do Yuki any good. Deciding to completely crush her she looked the girl in the eye, put on a charming smile and said

"Well as much as I would love to ask you about things I'm afraid that you know nothing of how to be a prefect. Your grades are horrible, you can't do math, you were and are failing all of your courses and you can't even do the basic duty of a prefect, which is to stop the fan girls. Truly I have nothing to learn form you. Unless of course it is about how to be a slut then if I wish to take on the profession of a prostitute or a simple whore then I may consider asking for your advice. As I do not see that happening I really don't have to interact with you in any way." Mei smiled as she saw the girl spluttering and red in the face.

"How dare you! I am neither a prostitute nor a whore and I have done a perfect job as a prefect!"

Mei grinned. It was tie to go in for the kill.

"Not a prostitute you say? Well then why do I smell the seed of more then three _human_ men on you and in you? It seemed that not even the lowest of the vampires would take you right? So you went to humans. Tell me just who did you think that you were fooling? Did it occur to you that a vampire's body is the same as a humans and thus the seamen of a male will stay alive and inside of you for seven days? I don't think that anyone in the night class would have spent time with you. Not even if you paid them to do it? Oh that expression on your face I'm right."

"Y-you"

"And you call yourself a princess. Not even the filthiest of prostitutes in the slums of society would do such a thing. What does that make you? Nothing but a whore. Weren't you 'engaged' as well hmmm? So tell me _Yuki _what make you so great? Hmmm?" Mei smiled in satisfaction at the pure blood's face. Every single one of her statements was correct. Looking at the position of the rest of the night class Mei spoke the killing shot and said, "oh look _Yuki_ you better hurry or else the class will leave you behind!" smirking at the hurrying figure of the pure blood. Now that made her day. If this becomes a daily occurrence it might just be worth it. It wasn't often that one gets to meet a pureblood that stupid.

**A/N I'm so sorry!** It took so long for me to get this chapter out! Oh yeah HAPPY NEW YEAR^^ please review? Reviewers get previews! Also to gravity's child! Thanks for your review^^ I can't pm you so I couldn't give you the preview! Sorry.


	6. Questions

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N **I forgot to mention this in the pervious chapter but in Japanese culture only very close friends, family and or lovers call each other by their first names without any honorifics added to the end. That's why Zero was so mad because Kaname pretty much stated that he thinks of Zero as a very close lover^^ Also when Mei calls Yuki by her name only it is an insult for it is pretty much the equivalent of saying that she does not respect Yuki in any way. Thanks to all those who reviewed, followed and faved!

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and some swearing.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

≈Ω≈

Kaname watch impassively as Yuki was completely humiliated. He wondered yet again why no one had said anything to the spoiled girl before now. Pure blood or not there should be limits of how much one should take. Perhaps the compulsion to obey the higher order of vampires was too ingrained to change…

Turning his thoughts back to his mate that was attempting to ignore him he contemplated the hunter's reaction if he scent marked him. No doubt Zero would know exactly what he was doing. Deciding to hold off that particular minefield for now the pureblood settled for the knowledge that another potential suitor had yet to make their appearance. If one did happen to pop out of the woodwork mused Kaname as he walked towards class leaving Yuki behind without so much as a glance, only one would come out of that confrontation in one piece. The night class happily followed his footsteps and away from the annoyance that was trying and failing miserably to think up of a come back against Mei. Needless to say Yuki just got her ass handed back to her, about time if you asked him. The dumb girl desperately needed to be taught that she wasn't the biggest fish out there. However he doubted that Yuki would learn this lesson. Perhaps if he pitted her up against one of those vampire balls that the nobles were so fond of holding? Filing that thought for later he walked through the gates of the academy without further incident. That is if you didn't count Yuki giving the new prefect the evil eye and said prefect smirking at her the whole way. It seemed that his mate found the entire situation amusing as well. Hiding a slight smile he made his way along the path and to the classrooms leaving the two perfects to stand outside the gates.

†

The second Zero was sure that all of the vampires were out of earshot he burst out laughing. His sudden out burst caused Mei to jump and spin around to look at him.

"Sorry sorry" he chocked in between ins guaffs "That's girls _face_-" he managed to get out before he doubled up again.

Finally getting a grip on himself he turned to Mei and said "You know if you plan to have a re-match with miss Kuran tomorrow I would gladly pay for tickets. Come to think of it you might be able to sell thickets to the night class even. Something tells me that they'll pay _a lot_ to see their _princess _be put in her place."

Zero then wondered how many people would actually buy them up front. No doubt there would be a flourishing black market of sorts by tomorrow. The sole products would possibly be those said tickets. In the back of his mind the hunter wondered if Kaname would buy. Blinking and not ready to believe that he had just thought that the hunter decided to go hunt up a brick wall and bang his head against it a couple dozen times. Evidently his brain was losing a few screws. Quickly turning his thoughts form Kana-KURAN, Kuran Zero turned to Mei and asked "You know what to do right? If any fan-girls show up then just yell at them or something."

The shadow rolled her eyes and said "Piece of cake, we can get off patrol at midnight right?"

"Yeah but be back here by the crack of dawn to escort the vamps back."

The destroyer groaned she was NOT a morning person. Zero knew how she felt. It was a pain in the ass to get up at some un-godly hour in the morning just to walk a bunch of vamps back to their rooms. Not his ideal start to the day, and the teachers wondered why he had such an attitude. He would like to see them try juggling being a prefect, school, homework and vampire hunting all at once. It was a miracle that he was getting any sleep at all, let alone somehow keeping his grades up at the top end of the class. Come to think of it he really needed to give himself a pat on the back for that…

"Well see ya at the crack of dawn" muttered the female prefect sounding highly depressed.

"See ya" Zero replied just before Mei became a blur that shot off somewhere into the trees that fenced the well warn path that they were currently standing in. Shaking his head at the girl's exit Zero opted to act like a normal person and walked back down the dirt path from which they'd come. Time to start his rounds. He thought as the moon rose in front of him and a light breeze tussled his hair. To any one looking from the gates Zero would have made a very mysterious but beautiful silhouette against the bright crescent moon. An entrancing sight that a pure blood was most certainly appreciating.

§

Mei looked down from her perch high in a fir tree and smiled. It looked like that Zero was not going to get one second of peace until he manned up and admitted to himself that he cared for the vamp. Honestly it would have been obvious to a blind man but noooo Zero just had to be both stubborn and in denial about the matters of the heart. The black cat wasn't too worried though. She could see that the male prefect was beginning to come around and if his random expressions were anything to go by he was subconsciously acknowledging Kuran as his mate. She couldn't wait till he realized. This was going to prove most entertaining.

†

Zero had had enough. The past few weeks had been his personal hell. First he was dragged to the association and in front of the whole damned organization congratulated on his 'mating' he was at the center of attention for _days _after that. Never minding the fact that he _wasn't_ mated at al. Then he found out that being a hunter pretty much elevated him to just below pure blood status in vampire society, which just added to the amount of attention that the anti social prefect was receiving. It seemed no matter where he went he was being stared at, bowed to and whispered about. It was grating on his nerves. It did _not_ make things any easier when Kanam-KURAN goddamn it!

When _Kuran_ had decided to make a practice of giving the prefect a _hug_ whenever he was in a thirty-meter radius of the pure blood. Not only that but he swore that he was being nuzzled during those hugs. Zero had a feeling that the damn vamp was scent marking him. This theory proved to be correct for whenever he came across Kaname after showering the pureblood go this dark look on his face and proceeded to give him an _extra _long hug. There was once where Zero had showered before he had turned in for the night and subsequently met Kaname in the morning covered in only his own scent. The bastard didn't let go for _ten whole minutes._ Learning from that incident he made a point to shower either before the after-noon changeover or just after the morning changeover. At least that way the pureblood was compelled to get moving after the maximum of two minutes.

What really got to Zero was the fact that he couldn't seem to find the strength to push the vampire off of him. Every time he was hugged he would be assaulted by the pure blood's scent and had to bodily hold himself back from returning the stupid hug. To add insult to injury he had a humiliating urge to bare his neck to the vamp whenever it happened. Zero had been hoping that he would become desensitized after a while and those reactions would go away but he was very wrong. At first it was like a little nudge, a half formed idea. Over time if had strengthened into an overwhelming urge. Now all he could do was force him-self to stand stock-still and pray that his iron grip on his control didn't fail him now. He was _so_ doomed.

≈Ω≈

Kaname smirked as he felt the prefect stiffen then immediately melt into his arms. He doubted that the hunter was aware of what he was doing. By the tilt of the boy's head Kaname knew that he was hanging on for dear life. To not show that sign of submission and acceptance, which he no doubt knew, would lead to a mark, the mating mark. Kaname knew that the boy was cracking an it was time to take a more _frontal_ approach. It seemed that he had some plans to make with the chairman. Sadly he would have to wait till the exams were over and the mid-year break started. He was finally getting close to his prey. Liking that thought immensely he gave the hunter a final squeeze, reluctantly let go and said "Good day Zero" before turning his back and walking off in the direction of the academy. Holding in his laughter as he saw multiple vein marks pop into existence on the prefects head and half-raised fist. The pure blood knew without a doubt that had he been the chairman his head would possibly resemble a field of deluxe triple scoop ice creams by now.

†

Zero seriously wished that he could just go and had it to the bastard. The only thing holding him back was the memory of what had happened the last time he tried. For all his trouble he had only managed to get him self hugged yet again by the insane bastard. Deciding that it wasn't worth the humiliating he sulked behind the group. His ears still ringing from the daily synchronized Kyaaaa's of the fan girls whenever they witnessed him being essentially molested by a pure blood vampire. It was becoming a daily occurrence now days. Yep decided the prefect. He was completely and utterly doomed. Perhaps he should look into getting himself transferred to China? Better make it in the middle of the Sahara desert to be safe….

§

Ying Mei Gwei was holding her sides to stop her-self from laughing. It had been weeks and the stubborn prefect still in denial. Holding back another burst of laughter as she thought about the boy's face when the president of the association forced him up on a stage and _publically_ announced his mating to Kaname Kuran. Mei was fairly sure that she could see a deep dark murderous aura flaring into existence behind the prefect. Then it seemed that Kuran had clued the rest of the night class in to the fact that Zero was now in the process of receiving his hunter inheritance. That caused even more attention to be fixed on the poor silverette. If it was one thing that Zero absolutely loathed it was massive amounts of attention. Come to think of it, the hunter looked like that he was about to commit murder the first time that the pure blood had hugged him. The general had to hand it to Zero though. If anything he was stubborn as hell and had a force of will to back it up. It was a miracle that he was able to hold back this long. Never mind _still be in denial_ about the whole thing. Mei sighed in frustration, the hunter really needed to get his facts straight. She had been waiting for the mid-year break to lump all of the lessons on him but it looked like that she might have to do it before schedule. Zero still did not fully understand what was happening and if he did something… Then the consequences would be grave. Making up her mind to grill him as soon as changeover was done the shadow turned her thoughts back to the annoying thing that was attempting to insult her. It was a good thing that Zero's daily hug caused so much of a disturbance for some of the things said by the idiotic pureblood would have blown the cover of the night class a long time ago. Making up her mind to put an end to this she smiled her 'just go kill your self smile' and said sweetly "Why Yuki dear I didn't know that you had the memory of a gold fish. For I am fairly certain that you said the exact same thing yesterday, and the day before that. I really would like to advise you to either improve that moronic brain of yours or just go end your miserable life. I think every one would thank you for that." At the girls out raged face Mei thought me- twenty-eight stuck up pure blood-nil. The pureblood always served to lift her mood.

†

Zero grit his teeth and dug his nails into his palms. He would not give in he would not give in. He chanted over and over in his head. It had fast become his mantra these past few weeks. He knew that he was cracking though. He was well aware of his reaction whenever the bastard hugged him. How he would instantly melt no matter what he did. It was almost impossible to fight off the urge to step deeper into-. Ahhhhhhh! He swore that it would be the death of him! Even when the bastard wasn't anywhere near him his thoughts always strayed back to the same fucking subject! Seriously he wondered what was wrong with him? If this was all to do with inheritance stuff he really needed to hunt down Mei sometime and get himself some decent answers. No matter how you looked at it this was NOT normal. Unbeknownst to him Mei was thinking the exact same thing. The vital difference was their attitude towards the entire affair.

"Oi Mei-chan!" he yelled once he had finally tracked the girl down. He could now see why she was called the shadow. It was impossible to find her!.

"Oh Zero! I was just looking for you." The hunter sweat dropped. If she had been looking for him then why was she up in the top most branches of a tree?

"I wanna ask some questions on this mating shit!" he called up

"Oh about time" muttered the girl as she calmly stepped off of the branch and began to free-fall towards the ground. At the last second when Zero was sure that she would splatter on the ground she reached out, grabbed a branch, did a summersault and landed perfectly on her feet without so much as a muffled thud. All the while smirking at the expressions on his face. Honestly this girl was crazy.

"so what d'ya wanna know?" asked the shadow not giving him enough time to get his jaw off of the ground.

"Explain the mating shit again coz the last time I checked the emotions were only supposed to be one way!"

"Ohhhh so you're finally admitting it to your self now?"

"WHAT?!"

"It's obvious that you'd have feelings for him. He's your mate." Stated the female prefect without so much as batting an eyelash. "You know that you love him~"

"I do not!"

"Denial~"

"I am NOT in denial! Just explain what the fuck is going on!"

"Fine fine" sighed Mei "The mating bond is strictly two way. It only takes one of the two to recognize it then without a doubt the emotions will be brought up to the surface. It's simple he love you. You love him."

"I thought that you can't 'create' the feeling of love?!"

"You can't"

"THEN?!"

"The mating bond only works if there are original feelings both ways. They don't have to be love; you just have to care about you mate to a certain degree. Then once one side recognizes the other the rest is set in stone. Like it or not Your gonna love the guy and you know it."

Zero then decided it would be an excellent time to begin bashing his brains out against a tree.

"Ze-chan I know that it's hard to accept but you know as well as I that there's no helping it. He's your perfect match, your other half. You can only delay the inevitable."

Zero banged his head again and groaned out "I know that's why I'm soooo dead"

"Well at least you willingly admit that you care for him…"

"How stupid and thick do you think I am? I know what my reactions are every time he so much as _looks_ at me."

"Hey if you were aware of it then why are you spending so much effort in trying to push it away? You said that you knew the ultimate outcome but why are you still fighting it?"

At that Zero bit his lip and looked away. He then blushed and mumbled something that even Mei could not make out. Seeing that the girl did not get it the hunter swallowed back his mortification and muttered, "I'm scared okay?"

Fixing his gaze on anything but his fellow prefect's face he missed the shocked then understanding expression that it now held. "You probably think I'm pathetic right?"

"No. You may doubt it but I understand where you're coming from. You're scared of being hurt aren't you?"

Zero spun around and stared at the girl. "How did-"

"Although the situation was different I know that it's scary to trust anyone with your heart. Especially having gone through the sort of pain that you have. I'm making guesses here but your scared to give him your heart because you don't trust him with it right? Well it's more like you can't trust him."

"It's not a matter of trust." Muttered Zero

"Wanna talk to me about it?"

"We kind of already are…" said Zero with a half twisted smile on his lips. However he continued any way.

"I learned the hard way that whatever you give your heart to it has a habit of coming to bit you back on the ass. I know that it may not be true in all cases but whenever I did it look what happened. Parents? Dead. Twin brother? Betrayed and murdered. Toga sensei? Wanted to kill me. Yuki? Now hates my guts. Now the guy that hated my guts loves me? Yeah not going to stomach that easily. If that's what happened before then what's going to happen this time? I know that if it ends badly it would hurt. A lot. That's why. It's not a matter of trust. It's a matter of faith." Zero sighed and flopped down on the ground. "What I'm most scared of is the pain that will follow. If I let myself fall for him then if it ends badly then the pain will be far _far_ greater then what I have experienced before. I don't think that I can handle that. It's like handing him a loaded gun and not expect him to shoot me with it. To have your trust destroyed is one thing. That just means you miss judged but to put all your faith into something and for it to come back and try to kill you… That's entirely different" He then leaned back and closed his eyes.

§

Mei looked at the broken man before her. He had been through too much and felt that he could not give away some part of him that made him the most vulnerable. Not that she blamed him at all. After what he had been through he would have to be a moron not to think that way. People adapted and with a will to live as strong as Zero's it was a miracle that he was able to not become a jaded statue. She thought back to her own experience. The empty glassy eyes the lack of emotion and the constant _cold_. Making her-self file away those thoughts she turned back to Zero.

"I don't have any right to tell you how to manage this but here's my advice. Get to know him a little then you can decide what to do. Right now you are focused on what he was like in the past. It is unfair to judge when you do not know their true personality. You must have noticed it as well right? His calm indifference and serenity is as much of a mask as your glare. He most likely knows the _real_ you. The 'you' that very few people have seen. Return the favor and get to know the man behind the pureblood mask all right? Then you would have an air tight reason to be able to judge him however you want." She saw that Zero was considering it when the prefect bit his lip and frowned. "Tell you what. Kuran is most likely going to bug you for all of mid-year break so use that time to get to know him all right? You never know he might not be that bad." Zero sighed and said "Fine, I won't go camp out at your place while he's there. Happy now?"

"Yep!" Mei smiled. It was finally sinking in or rather he was finally beginning to open up that Pandora box of his. That heavily chained and fortified box that was the hunter's heart. Mei smiled sadly. She truly wished him happiness the world _owed_ it to him. It pained her that he was pushing away from the love that he so deserved but she also understood the hunter's pain. Once someone had a taste of heart break they would naturally shy away from situations that would cause that overwhelming pain again. She hoped that he would be able to find the strength and obtain his other half. No one deserved it as much as Zero that's for sure.

"Oh yeah there's something wrong with my tattoo" said the prefect jerking Mei out of her morbid thoughts.

"I swear it's disappearing or something."

"That's natural." Replied the fellow prefect "Your tattoo was designed to suppress vampirism right? It would be natural for it to disappear when there is no vampire energy and change for it to suppress. You could say it's disappearing along with your vampire cells."

The hunter frowned and asked "Then why is there some strange tattoo slowly appearing at the back of my neck?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah there's some weird mark that's starting to appear and it's only visible some of the times. Other times it's like it never existed or something"

"Ah that's your crest."

"What do you mean? My family crest looks nothing like the tattoo."

"No it's not your family crest _your_ crest. It is one of the main attributes of a hunter. At the back of each hunter's neck there is a crest. That crest is yours and unique to you. Kind of like how all tiger's stripes are different. It is essentially your fingerprint in true hunter society. It also reflects your personality. For example." Said Mei as she turned around and lifted up her dual colored hair.

"My crest is that of two overlapping five pointed stars. That shows that I am rather secretive as the stars are 'covering' each other. If you look inside of the stars you would see that it is filled with curling lines that all interconnect. Hell even the stars it self are made up of those lines if you look closely. You are able to see the shape but it is covered in those swirling 'lines' right? That is my main power. Shadows. You kind of get it now?"

†

Zero nodded at that explanation. The girls tattoo was simple yet utterly confusing to look at all at once. First one would simply see a ten-pointed star then you would realize that it was an optical illusion of sorts for you could not determine which star started and ended where. That led you to what she had called 'lines'. That description was utterly incorrect. They looked like the vines of a climbing plant as they curled into spirals and formed a intricate web inside the two stars. It was ordered chaos. To make matters worse the said spirals seemed to be _moving_. Zero wasn't sure if it was just another optical illusion. At this point he seriously didn't trust his eyes. Shaking his head he asked "I think I've got two…" the female prefect's eyes widened.

"Two?"

"Yeah. One's of a tightly closed rose bud covered in thorny vines and the other is one of those half-bloomed roses. It's still constricted by thorns though."

"ohhhh I understand now~" said the girl in a sing-song voice that had Zero turning slightly blue at the side of his face. Seriously that tone did not suit her at _all_.

"What do you get?"

"I said that our crests are based on our personality of sorts right? Well being mated definitely causes a large change so that's what's happening! If my guess is correct when you are fully mated then the rose will be fully bloomed and only have throne vines around it like a protective barrier. Don't worry it's normal. To hunter's it is an extremely valuable tool for double checking if that someone is truly your mate." Crap Zero thought. There was no getting away from it was there? Even the stupid tattoo was backing things up. Was no one on his side? Just because he accepted it did not mean that he was just suddenly going to roll over! He was a fighter to the core and he absolutely refused to behave like a good little doll. Not going to happen. Ever. Funnily enough most people would like the feeling if someone they loved 'possessed' them. To Zero it just said that he was nothing but an object to be obtained and showed off. Considering vampire society where the 'lower class' mate was supposed to act obedient to the 'upper class' Zero would again have to play the roll of a puppet. Nobody was going to put a collar around his neck.

§

Mei sighed as she took in the expression on the boy's face. He was most likely thinking about the mating again. "What are you worried about now?" she asked opting to get straight to the point.

"I don't want to be a possession. I want to retain my own free will. I didn't fight the transition for this long just to roll over now." Said the hunter with a scowl on his face. This Mei could understand one of the things that Zero had come to value the most was his own free will. Essentially he was afraid of being controlled and become a 'puppet' as he had put it. Deciding the best way to approach this was to completely extinguish the boy's fears all at once she said

"It's not possible. The true hunter's are incapable of being 'possessed' as you put it. The mating is on equal terms. For the bond won't recognize anyone weaker or inferior to them. Like wise anyone stronger and the bond would be impossible to be formed. So there is nothing to worry about."

"But the bond's not formed" Said Zero with a frown

"It is half formed. The second Kuran accepted you as his mate and began to think of you as such half of the bond has already formed." Zero just stared.

"You mean that it's already half way there?!" he said incredulous.

"Anti climatic right? Sorry but it does not take sex to fully cement the bond~"

"Ahhhh I did not need to think of the possibility of having s- doing _THAT _with_ him!"_

"Awww your so cute~ don't worry you still will most likely end up doing _that_~"

"Aghhhhh! No! That is soooo NOT going to happen!"

Mei had to laugh at the poor prefects face. He was completely red from embarrassment. Deciding that she had scarred him enough for the time being she simply said

"Although it's not necessary there are a whole heap of conditions that must be fulfilled for the bond to work. So don't worry its not that easy."

"What conditions?"

"hmm getting into this are we?"

Vein marks popped up in Zero's head as he blushed "Shut up and just tell me"

"Well as you ask so nicely dear brother," muttered Mei under her breath

"The conditions are: the two accept that they are the mates of each other, they mark each other with their crests and lastly for the receiver of the crest to accept it as theirs. Of course there are stages to all of this as well but they are all different and dependant on your connection with that person so it would be hard to list them. All I can tell you that they are generally a list of 'firsts' and it does not have to be significant. Just what ever helps you form a deeper connection with your mate.'

"How will I know? That the separate stages are being fulfilled I mean."

"Well… The mating mark can't be formed until certain stages are passes so it is common for only one of the pair to bare the mark at first. That is your most firm indicator for the others however it's more of a gradual thing. Generally you will be able to establish some sort of telepathic connection. From what I've heard it starts out kind of like a 'feeling' or a 'I just know' then it becomes more defined. You have to understand every one is different and hunters are no exception so it's kind of hard to pinpoint these things…"

"I kind of get that. It's like a gradual change over time right? Hang on last time I checked you're not mated so how the hell do you know this stuff. I checked in with the association and a true hunter hasn't been bourn in a hundred years much less reached the inheritance… "

"The only thing I can tell you now is that there is a community of hunters and elves that live deep in the forests of China. One particular village has a tree called the world tree. You probably know it as Yaggdrasil." Mei saw Zero's eyes widen.

"Yes the world tree out of Norse mythology. Of course the whole thing about the three layers is completely nonsense but almost every legend has an ounce of truth. I'll give you examples later. The point is that tree stores all of the knowledge gained by our ancestors. It is a tree that only awakened true hunters can go near without being poisoned by the tree's fruit and yes before you ask they look like apples. The tree automatically absorbs knowledge but it leaves memories alone. Kind of like a textbook. It does not retain how that knowledge was obtained just that it is. You get it?"

"So you mean everything that I am learning that my ancestors didn't know is being automatically downloaded into that tree?"

"Something like that. Don't worry there's no emotions just cold hard facts and purely academically based things. For example I don't know what happened to the previous hunters. I only know about the mating. How they obtained this knowledge I have no clue. Make sense?"

"Yeah. Hey does that mean I can get that as well?"

"Of course. You have no idea how rear it is to have two hunters in one country let alone this close. Many of our ancestors either chose to live with the elves or led quiet lives in far away places. So you can imagine that not a lot of information get's passed from one hunter to the other. The world tree was always there. There was a legend that is was first created as a library of sorts by one of the original hunters but it hasn't been proven. Every one has their own theories but…"

"No one knows for sure right? So how can I get all that info?"

"Sorry you can't that fast. You have to be completely awakened and in full control of your powers first. It's because you have to form a connection to the tree and that takes very delicate control. Too much and you might be absorbed into the tree, too little and nothing will happen. So just wait for a while okay?"

"Guess so…" said Zero not liking the thought of being turned into a tree. He had a sinking feeling that there was no 'reversal' spell…

"Well? How about you go to Kuran and confess those feelings of yours?" said Mei for she felt that they had become seriously off subject. Come to think of it, it was nearly midnight. Hoping that no day-class girl had chosen this night to sneak into the academy the general quickly said "Common we haven't done our rounds. See ya at dawn!" Zero just sighed. He was still trying to fully absorb all the information that had been crammed into his head. Merely nodding in the girl's direction he stood up and wondered off. Knowing that the female prefect was long gone. She was most likely somewhere into the trees again.

≈Ω≈

Kaname watched as the two hunters talked. The only reason why he could see them at all was because of Zero's glowing silver hair. In the dark with so little light the female prefect completely blended into the background. From what he could see when they finally parted was the fact that his mate had been left with much to think about and Ying seemed to be satisfied. Most likely she had cleared up some matters on hunter mating. He remembered receiving that lesson him self albeit in a much direct fashion. The prefect had dragged him aside as he headed out on his 'lunch' break and gave him a through grilling on hunter mating and all that entitled. To the pure blood's surprise it was highly similar to the original pure blood courting. The only difference was that a telepathic connection did not form in vampire partners until at least ten thousand years of being mated. It shocked Kaname that it would occur that fast for the hunters. When he had revealed it to the girl the general had merely shrugged and said that it was most likely down the lifestyles of the two races. Vampires generally took things slower while hunters although much more 'immortal' then pure bloods took things faster. Ying theorized that it was due to the fact that the hunters were nearly constantly in battle and a pair of mates that were unsynchronized with each other would lead to heavy injuries. Kaname had to agree it made sense. Even back at the beginning of his long life he had found his fellow vampires as arrogant and took their long lives for granted. It seemed that the hunters knew the principle of 'there will always be some one bigger'.

Kaname let him self tune out the professor's droning as he allowed his mind to wonder. The settled once again on the plans he was making for mid-year break. If things went according to plan then it would prove to be both a very amusing and 'profitable' two weeks.

**A/N** Thinks to all those who reviewed! As it is the holidays at my school I now have plenty of time to write so previews will stop after this chapter as I will most likely post a new chapter ever two to three days at the latest! So really no point… But thanks and please review!


	7. Kidnappings

**Learning to Love Again**

**A/N **It's another chapter! Fast right? Since I am on holiday I now have plenty of time to write! Thanks to all those who reviewed, faved and followed!

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and some swearing.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

†

Zero glared at his history essay. It did not help that his brain was already partially fried from the over load of information that he had received before. To make matters worse his thoughts kept straying towards the direction of one certain pureblood vampire. It seemed that getting things off of his chest did not help in the situation he was in. Some how perhaps foolishly he had hoped that talking it out would dull the unfamiliar emotions, which were threatening to break out inside of him. He could not afford to give some one that much power over him. Especially Kuran, hell he was hardly over the fact that they were supposed to be _enemies_ just a few weeks ago. Sometimes thought the hunter life was a total bitch.

Sighing the prefect got up from his desk that was pushed up against the wall and stripped. He was too tired to take a shower and plus if he did the next morning he would get molested _again_ by the arrogant twit. He wondered if it was a vampire thing to be so annoyingly possessive? Nah it was most likely just Kaname's gift for irritating him. Letting him-self fall onto the bed the hunter draped his arm over his violet eyes. Being the anti-social person that he was he had no idea how to even begin a conversation with the pure blood let alone breech the subject without the bastard getting the wrong idea about the whole conversation. Perhaps he should wait till break? That would take away at least some embarrassment. Zero cursed super vampire hearing and the thin walls of the moon dorm. He was mortified enough to have to have this conversation with Kuran of all people. He did not need to add in unintentional eavesdroppers who no doubt will be able to hear every single embarrassing word. Yeah thought the prefect. Definitely going to wait till break and preferably when the Chairman is _out_ of the house. With that final thought the hunter pulled the white linen blanket over himself and promptly went to sleep. The history essay could wait he figured. The whole subject was on dead people he didn't think that they would mind too much if he put them off for a while.

Zero woke to sunlight streaming through his un-closed window. His groggy mind told him that he was sure that he closed it last night. Suddenly he jerked up sunlight, dawn shit! He was late for change over! Panicking and grabbing whatever articles of uniform that looked clean in his closet Zero sprinted off down the dorm still half dressed. Holding his tie in his mouth he ran as he buttoned up his shirt. Looking at the tie for a second he decided not to bother with that for now and sprinted towards the gates of the academy.

By the time he got there he was out of breath, covered in sweat and flushed from oxygen deprivation. It did not help that he could not get his heart rate to slow down either. If seemed that he had not arrived a second too soon as Mei was already there and facing the gates. She only had time to give him a questioning look that he waved off before the gates opened. Still slightly panting the prefects watched as the vampires filed out. All the while ticking their names off of the 'evening' roll.

§

Mei watched in amusement as she saw her fellow prefect come sprinting up the tree-lined path. It looked like some one woke up late. In his haste the hunter had forgone the tie and had left the top most buttons of his shirt open. To a human it would be seen as either casual or a tad sloppy but to a vampire it was an entirely different story. The collar of the shirt was high enough to cover his jaguar but looked like that it was going to fall down any second. Combine that with the unintentional v-neck made by the shirt Zero looked like he was just begging for some one to bite him. Combine that with his messed up hair and flushed expression… When Kuran saw him then he would be in for it thought the female hunter ruefully. It seemed that he had just arrived on time because just then the gates opened not letting Zero have the chance to compose him self. He was sooo doomed.

True to the shadow's prediction the second the pure blood saw the ex-human a dark look passed over Kuran's face as he took in Zero's condition. The poor hunter was still oblivious to this and happily trying to get his breath back. In three… two… counted Mei in her head and sure enough the hunter was soon engulfed in a crushing hug. Shaking her head the prefect went back to her duties she wondered how long they would be this time? Taking in the expressions of the 'inner circle' it seemed that they were thinking the same thing.

≈Ω≈

Kaname Kuran was one happy pure blood. Well he would be if his mate hadn't appeared like that in front of the entire vampire population currently in the academy. Was he trying to push Kaname into murder? The boy's sinfully disheveled appearance was an enticing sight. The hunter had better be grateful the he had such good self-control the pureblood grumbled to himself. Right now it was taking everything out of him not to bite the prefect right then and there. However he knew that he had to be patient. It would not do to scare off his mate so soon in the courtship. That was a big no-no. sighing to himself he squeezed the hunter in his arms a tad tighter and resolved not to let go any time soon.

"You may go back to the dorms," commanded Kaname over his shoulder. Realizing that their leader wasn't planning of moving and inch anytime soon they all trooped off to the moon dorms with Mei escorting them like the good little vampires that they were. Feeling them leave Kaname snuggled further into his mate's neck taking in the alluring scent that was Zero. The hunter smelled like a unique blend of spices. Cinnamon, clove, chili and an indefinite number of others all mixed together. Forming a mouth-watering scent that was both complex and strong. Kaname had to resist the temptation to lick the hunter to accretion if he tasted as good as he smelled. Nevertheless he knew that the action would not be seen as endearment but rather as an invasion of personal space of sorts. Thus the pureblood did the next best thing. He nuzzled his face further into where the hunter's neck met his shoulders. The place that carried the most concentrated amount of Zero's unique scent.

It might be a mate thing but Kaname severely doubted that anyone could smell as good as Zero. The scent was sharp and strong without being overwhelming but also had complexity to it so one was always left guessing just what it contained. Despite that what made the pureblood almost purr was the fact that he could smell his own scent on the hunter. It was evident that the boy had not showered since he saw him last. Damn cursed Kaname internally. If this carried on then he would lose the very control he was currently in the midst of fighting for. It wasn't like that Kaname designed to embrace the hunter everyday it was the fact that somehow he just couldn't stay away from the silver haired hunter.

†

While Kaname was lost in the hunter's scent and his own thoughts the said hunter was miserably holding on to his control for dear life. It did not help that the pure blood was constantly nuzzling him in the neck for it was causing sensations to shoot through Zero's body like wild fire. Sensations that he did not want to deal with right now. Hell he didn't want to deal with it ever if it was Kana-Kuran of all people that was causing them! Zero grit his teeth and barely suppressed a moan when Kaname brushed up against a particularly sensitive spot on his neck. What was this some kind of test?! Digging his nails into the palms of his hands he gritted out

"Kuran get back to your dorms" Zero nearly died of embarrassment at the pure blood's answer

"But Zero I like this feeling" as if to back up the comment the prefect was squeezed even tighter and felt something wet on his neck. Shocked he asked

"Did you just _lick_ me?"

"hmm you taste good"

"God damn it Kuran let go!"

"I refuse"

Crap thought Zero if this carries on then he would cave. Already he could feel the telltale cracks in his will power. If this continued any longer… He was so screwed. The hunter attempted to take a breath to calm him self down. Big mistake, all he got for his trouble was an extra concentrated dose of the pure blood's scent. True the blood lust wasn't there anymore but the scent was making his head swim and weak at the knees. Soon his self control was in shreds at his feet. The prefect couldn't help it any more, his body moved all on it's own. By the time Zero had regained some sense of direction he was already returning the hug with his head tilted to the side. Crap! The feel of twin fangs on his neck about to bite down was like a bucket of ice-cold water on the hunter's head. As a reflex he gave the vampire a shove and leapt as far away as possible. Eyes wide and panting Zero covered his neck with one hand. Scrambling desperately in his mind for his anger and rage. Anger he knew and understood, thus he used it as his armor. The emotions the hunter had been experiencing was out of Zero's depth, he had no idea how to handle them none at all. Fixing his stormy mask into place he scowled and growled out

"Get back to your dorms Kuran" To his relief the pure blood complied without so much as a smirk. Ensuring that the pure blood had indeed gone back to the moon dorms Zero made his was to Lily's stable. He needed so solitude right now and lily was always there to provide it. No one went near the 'demon mare' due to her nasty habit of presenting people with a nasty kick or bite as a greeting. Zero was the only one who could get near the horse let alone ride it. In effect she was his safe haven. Even Yuki hadn't dared to venture inside.

With a sigh the prefect sank into the straw at the back of the stall with lily happily munching on an apple that he had taken out of the bucket. He had found that if he didn't give her something then she opted to attempt to eat his hair. Preferring not to grow a premature bold spot the hunter made a point to always give the horse something whenever he visited. He had a feeling that he was being manipulated…

Figuring that he would skip for the day Zero closed his eyes and drifted into some much needed sleep.

≈Ω≈

Kaname paced in his room feeling like shit. He couldn't believe at his lack of self-control. He was a pure blood for ancestor's sake and he had nearly bitten the boy. It was a miracle in it self that he wasn't shot for that. It had been evident in the prefect's face that he was terrified. Not that Kaname could blame him. Zero had no good memories when it came to Vampire bites and it was no surprise that he was weary of them. It had after all destroyed his future and caused him extraordinary amounts of pain. Employing the use of a mental check to ensue that all vampires in the vicinity were sound asleep Kaname went over to his plush leather chair and sat down. Slouching and burying his face in his arms on his desk in a distinctly un-pureblood like fashion. What was he going to do? The boy no doubt hated him now. Kaname knew that he had just brutally torn old scars wide open seemingly without a care in the world. It really sucked to be him sometimes.

†

Zero looked up at the sky. It was about midday by now. Feeling decidedly refreshed the hunter set off to the dorms. School was nearly over anyway. Just then the chairman came running down the path screaming

"Kiryu-kunnnnn! Give you daddy a hug~"

BAM

Cross's face met painfully with a closed fist. Zero sighed the old geezer never learned.

"What do you want now?"

"Since you have time do you mind going shopping for me? I'm busy with paper work an Toga-sensei can take care of your prefect duties for now."

"Fine" muttered Zero holding his hand out for the list. He knew that if he didn't agree then it would be hours and hours of constant whining from the hyperactive old man. Not feeling up to dealing with that today the hunter reluctantly accepted it and turned towards the school gates. Checking the list over he guessed that the nearest town would suffice for everything on the list. Thankful that it was just a short walk away the prefect set out. All bad memories from hours prior happily banished by the nap. He always was able to sleep without nightmares with Lily around. Hell the horse probably was even able to scare even the worst dreams away… Damn he sounded like a little kid.

"Thank you! Please come again!" said the shop assistant as Zero backed out the door with his arms laden with groceries. He wondered what the crazy old man was attempting to make today. The list had contained everything from cereal to beetroot. Making a mental note to cook him self, the hunter set out back towards the school. It was becoming dark and he didn't have the drive to deal with feral level E's right now. It had been exhausting enough attempting to decipher the chairman's messed up writing and scoring the town for the necessary products. There had been many double takes and the re-visiting of certain shops multiple times. He was never going to do this ever again. To make matters worse he was being stared at all the way, undoubtedly due to his uniform and unique features. For the umpteenth time he cursed his ancestors for having such striking attributes. What kind of Japanese person had silver hair and purple eyes?! Zero did not like attention at all. He had always been the shy one and to such an extent that no one believed that he was the elder twin because of his habit to hide behind Ichiru whenever they were at gatherings. He was just anti-social by nature.

Turning into an ally to get away from the constant stares the hunter took his well-known short cut through the messier end of the city towards the back gate of the academy. In his opinion the sooner he got back the sooner he could finish up that darn essay of his. Suddenly in the hunter corner of his mind he detected at least ten vampires coming his way. Frowning, as they were all of at least c class he brushed it off as some students of the academy out to have some free time. After all it was a common occurrence now days.

Hearing a shout Zero spun around just in time for someone to whack a steel bar on his head. Stumbling he reached inside his jacked to bloody rose and froze. It wasn't there. Suddenly his mind conjured up the image of his beloved gun on his bedside table. With a groan he realized that in the rush of getting to changeover on time and the whole biting fiasco with Kaname he had left his gun in his dorm room. Mentally beating him self up for his stupidity the hunter backed away and desperately looked around for a weapon. Something, anything that could be used. Seeing a wickedly sharp looking metal pipe on the ground behind the vampire holding the bar he wondered if it was worth getting hit again to obtain the makeshift weapon. Deciding that if he stayed here he was going to get hit anyway Zero made a lunge for it. Luckily the vamp didn't anticipate that move and thus only missed his head. Unluckily it got him square in the back. On the bright side winced Zero as he grabbed the pipe. It couldn't be worse then a bad bruise. The only thing he was worried about now was that in the first attack the vamp ad broken skin and being a head wound it was bleeding profusely. Zero had no idea what true hunter blood was like to vampires but by the hungry look on this vamps face he deduced that it was somewhere closed to the smell of pure blood. Great he thought in his mind. Not only was he practically defenseless his spilled blood had a chance of causing the vamps to go into blood lust. When Level E's went into blood lust they lost all reason. Normal vampires were different. They still retained some part of their reasoning and could plan and strategize. Combine that with their slightly increased speed and the seemingly lacking perception of pain… Gritting his teeth Zero backed up the other wall of the ally and held out the pipe in front of him. It's sharp point aimed directly at the vamp's heart. As it wasn't a hunter weapon it would take a mortal blow to even slow it down. There were spells that could change it into a hunter charged weapon but he didn't have the time as the vamp was already preparing to spring. Eyes narrowing as he saw the vamp tensed up he rolled away from the wall just as the vamp sailed overhead. At the peak of the thing's lunge Zero stabbed upwards effectively impaling the thing as gravity carried it back to earth. Nodding in satisfaction as it turned to dust Zero turned his attention to the vampires that now surrounded the ally exits. They were obviously unwilling to go in and fight him one-on-one.

Zero did a mental calculation. He could use the cloaking charm but that would take at least half and hour for the effects to kick in and he didn't think that the vamps were going to wait that long. He sighed he really needed to learn some offensive spells off of Toga. The only reason why he didn't before was that he found that his vampire body had rejected them and thus limited him to only be able to do defensive ones that do not harm vampires in any way. Growling in frustration at his ignorance the young hunter raked his mind for ideas. Escape was out of the question as all exits were blocked and the walls too smooth to climb also he was still bleeding and that would make him more then easy to track. If he did somehow manage to get away then he would just lead these vampires to the academy. The residential vamps would be awake but that would risk their cover form being blown. He had no choice he had to take them all down. Zero looked down at the pipe, should he risk it? If the spell went well then he would have an anti-vampire weapon. If it failed then he would most likely end up with pieces of metal pipe embedded in his flesh. Sensing that the vamps were getting restless from the lack of commotion the prefect decided to screw it and focused his mind on the pipe. It should take about twenty seconds… Here was hoping that the vamps stayed still for that long. At the ten second mark a large beefy level c vamp charged at him from the front entrance to the ally. No such luck then.

Nine seconds he thought as he stabbed the thing in the throat.

Eight seconds as he ducked and rolled from a vicious blond female that was attempting to claw his eyes out with elongated and perfectly manicured nails

Seven seconds and he griped her hand and used the said nails to stab them into her comrade's chest as the vamp tried to sneak up behind him.

Six seconds as a tall thin vamp with a rather squashed in face and blind looking eyes jumped from the roof and tackled him

Five seconds and the vamp greeted the blond female in the face.

Four seconds and Zero stabbed them both through the heart.

Three seconds and all the vampires in the ally turned to piles of ash.

Two seconds as he heard rapid footsteps and the feeling of reinforcement vampires.

One second and a wave of six vampires or so leapt at him from the rooftops of the apartment buildings that were on either side of the ally.

Zero. Thought the hunter as he grinned. The pipe began to glow a rich lavender color that matched his eyes when he was on the job. Looks like it worked he thought pleased as the cut down vamp after vamp with his improvise weapon.

Soon enough the ally was blanketed with a fine layer of dust. Suddenly Zero tensed. He was feeling a vampire of near pure blood power at the back entrance of the ally, the direction where the academy was located. The bastard most likely knew exactly what was there thought Zero. Having focused on the stronger vampire he failed to notice a final vamp leap from a sheltered part of the roof and directly on his back. Cursing he rolled attempting to shake the thing off. Unfortunately for the hunter this one was a high ranking noble with the power of electric currents. The prefect's eyes widened as he felt the currents pass through his body and the world went dark. His last though before he passed out was well shit!

?

"So this is Kiryu Zero?" asked the man looking at the unconscious boy in curiosity. "I can see why the association is so desperate to have him. This child is skilled. To think that he would be able to take on and kill so many of my private guards without using a hunter weapon let alone breaking a sweat.

"If I may Shinjiro-sama the boy created a hunter weapon."

"Yes and that make it all the more impressive. I suppose that we were lucky that he did not have his preferred weapon with him. Take him to the car." Commanded the blond man.

"Right away." Replied the rather unassuming man that had jumped from the roof. He quickly picked up Zero as if he weighed nothing at all and headed out of the ally towards a dark blue car that was waiting at the entrance of the ally.

'Shinjiro-sama' smiled as the hunter was taken away. He could not believe that Kaname-sama one of the most powerful purebloods there was could think that his mate was this filthy level E. What was even more laughable was the fact that the boy fancied himself a vampire hunter! Kaname-sama must have been bewitched by some strange hunter charm he decided. Don't worry Kaname-sama thought the right wing fruitcake I your most devoted subordinate Shinjiro Ryuuichi shall free you from this curse! If any one else had been there they would have sweat dropped, as the background would be full of sparkles and the words utter devotion and extremist. This guy was obviously seriously lacking not only _correct information_ but also quite a few marbles. One would say that he was one of those 'true believers'. English translation: a crazy person.

›‹

At the entrance of the ally Takamiya Kaito quickly turned and ran for the academy. He knew that he was no match for those vampires that had just taken Kiryu prisoner. His fellow student's only hope now was that he alerted the chairman. He tusked as he revved up his bike. Leave it to Kiryu of all people to mess up months of investigations in just ten seconds. It had been Kaito's job to investigate the organization that called them selves the _junsui no hogogu_ or protectors of the pure. They were an extremist group that had popped up a few years back that resorted to drastic measures to keep the pureblood bloodlines from becoming 'contaminated'. Speeding along the road Kaito had a funny feeling that it had something to do with Kiryu's mate. Although the younger hunter had viciously denied it at the 'meeting' everyone knew better. The boy was honestly transparent when it came to some things. Ignoring the speed limit signs Kaito arrived at the gates in record time. Not bothering to dismount he drove straight through towards the 'principal's office' leaving quite a few stunned students blue with shock in his dust. He would apologize later, now was not the time to stop.

Doing a wheelie and destroying the door he cut the engine and yelled

"Hey Cross! Kiryu just got kidnapped by a bunch of extremists in town! Went off on a blue car number plate 2FDR 355!" What could you say? Kaito although hot tempered, was a hunter and knew what to do in these situations. It was a standard lesson that was drilled into them the second they began training at the young age of three. Hell some began earlier and could handle weapons before they could _talk_. Kiryu had been one such person. The chairman's expression turned from blue with shock to a happy-go-lucky-sparkles-and-smiles welcome to finally a serious face that only appeared for as second before the goofy smile was back. Kaito sweat dropped was this really the time to be smiling? The idiot does realize that his 'darling son' just got kidnapped right? Seeing Kaito's expression the chairman sparkled and said

"eyahhhh~ Takamiya-sensei you really shouldn't ride your motorcycle in here!"

A large vein mark popped into existence on Kaito's head was this guy crazy?! He had heard rumors that the man was 'eccentric' but this was pushing it. The guy wasn't eccentric! This guy was insane!

"Aren't you at least a little worried?!"

"Of course not! My cute son had Kaname-kun to take care of him!" Kaito arched an eyebrow. Kaname-kun? Who the hell was that?! Oh wait thaaat Kaname. The one that was announced as Kiryu's mate… He remembered them saying something about a pure blood vampire? Then suddenly it clicked. Pure blood vampire Kaname Kuran, leader and dorm president of the Night class also recently announced as the life mate of Kiryu Zero. He almost face palmed at that. HOW could he have forgotten something so important? Oh right because he had terrible memory. Suddenly he thought of something

"Uh you do realize that Kuran has _no idea_ of what happened to Kiryu right?"

"Ahhh your right! How could I have forgotten?" Leaning over and pressing a button on his desk he spoke into the intercom

"Mei-chan~ could you please bring Kuran-san to my office? It's important~"

Kaito went blue at the side of his face and sweat dropped. By the way he said it, it didn't seem important at all. Was it really okay to leave it to this guy? Just then Toga walked in not giving the shattered door and the motorcycle a second glance.

"Oi Kaien! Here's the paper work and this time DO IT YOUR SELF!"

Kaito at this point had given up and simply looked away. There was no helping it he thought. These guys obviously had a lot of trust on this Kuran person. Internally sighing he thought. Sorry Kiryu but your gonna have to wait for Kuran to rescue you… He had a funny feeling that the missing prefect would not appreciate that too much.

§

Mei frowned when she heard the intercom. The chairman sounded happy too happy. It was either he was going to invite Kuran to dinner or something had happened to Zero. Deciding that it was safe to chose the latter she stood up from her desk and walked out of her room. She was forever thankful that being a prefect meant that she had a room to herself. It would have been awkward sharing a room with someone. Especially if they found her stash of hunter weapons… She paused as she turned around to close the door seeing the pile of homework, assignments and reports to write. Damn. She knew that there was a reason she worked her ass off to graduate high school at fourteen. Glaring at the stacks of paper and wishing that she could set them on fire Mei did a last mental check of the defenses in her room. Satisfied that they were all in order she closed the door with a soft click and went off to find the pure blood vampire. He had better be in that office of his doing paperwork she mused. The shadow did not feel like running around the damn school looking for him.

As luck would have it she found him under a mountain of paperwork looking rather annoyed in the moon dorm. Although she had a slight feeling that the annoyance wasn't for the work but rather for the thing that was clinging to him like slime. She had almost forgotten about Yuki. Spotting the female prefect she sneered

"Here to beg for forgiveness _hunter"_

Mei raised an eyebrow was that the best she could do? In that case…

"Why how did you know?" she replied in a sickeningly sweet voice that nearly made both Takuma and Kuran shudder. "You must have read my mind. I was just here to offer my apologies and beg forgiveness form the god's on your brothers behalf for having _such_ a vile thing for a sister as you." Still smiling her just-go kill-yourself smile she turned to Kuran and said in a matter of fact tone "I offer my most sincere and deepest apologies. It must have been hard on you. Oh yes The Chairman wishes to see you in his office." With that she turned her heel and simply walked out. Leaving two vampires on the verge of laughing and one more attempting to impersonate a fish out of water. Ah I love being me thought Mei as she walked back to her room. Opening the door and laying her magenta eyes on the stacks of work that was waiting for her he groaned and thought scratch that I hate being me. Grimly she sat down to resume her never-ending work. Where was a slave when you needed one?

≈Ω≈

Kaname shook his head as he walked out of his office having successfully disentangled himself from his sister. That Ying girl had spunk and guts he had to admit. Not many people would say anything like that about a pure blood let alone to their face. Not only that but she had done exactly what she said she was there to do. She actually apologized to him for having such a sister! That girl was afraid of no one and did not have any qualms about having her thoughts known. Reminded him of a certain silver haired hunter come to think of it. In his long life he was quite willing to bet that they were the only two people that did not fall to their knees and grovel after discovering who he was. Half smiling he made his way to the main building wondering what on earth the chairman wanted at this hour. To humans it was dusk but for a vampire it was their equivalent to the crack of dawn.

Blinking at the remains of what he could only guess as the door Kaname stepped over the derbies and made his way into the office. There against the wall was a shiny black motorcycle. No doubt the cause of the damage. What was going on?

"Ah Kaname-kun!" greeted the chairman not seeming an ounce perturbed at the odd happenings in his office.

"I would like you to meet Takamiya Kaito or Kaito sensei as he will now be called. As you know Higushi-sensei our teacher of ethics had retired so he will be filling in that spot as a student teacher for not until I can employ a more trained professor." Kaname looked to the corner where the hunter was standing. Like all hunters of some experience he was muscular and rather tall. He also had chocolate colored eyes and dark brown hair. Nodding at the new addition to the school the pure blood turned back to Cross.

"I imagine that you have not summoned me at this hour for the sole purpose of introducing a new member of staff?"

"Ah sharp as ever Kaname-kun! Well you see we have a bit of a problem here." Said the chairman cheerfully with a grin on his face "Zero-rin's been kidnapped!" all the while he said that the happy expression did not change. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the new student teacher face palm. It was as if the man was thinking 'that is not how you should react when you reveal that some one let alone your 'darling son' had been taken you moron!' Kaname had to agree although he was used to the hyper man's antics and was not too surprised at his reaction and behavior to the news. Kaname knew that if it was serious then Cross would not be this relaxed. If it was like this then it was most likely a group of fairly low-level vampires that had taken his mate. No doubt he wanted Kaname himself to go free the hunter. It was most likely some part of his plan for 'bonding time' or something along those lines. Kaname had to admit it was a good plan. Although his instincts were screaming at him to rip, kill and tear apart anyone that had touched his mate. Making an effort to suppress the more beastly side of him he asked, "May I inquire where this happened and the vehicle that the culprits left on?"

"Ah yes" to his surprise it was the new teacher that spoke up "Kiryu was most likely taken by an organization that call them selves the junsui no hogogu. They are an extremist group whom I have been investigating for the past few months. I believe that they targeted Kiryu because of their lack of information about Kiryu's status and thus mistook him as a level D vampire." Kaname's face remained un changed. He had heard about the group from the numerous 'vampire balls' that he had been forced to attend. After the death of the council every one had scrambled to obtain his good graces in fear that they would be killed themselves. To his surprise even some pure blood families had attended also. They had only calmed down recently after he had made clear that he had no plans for world domination. He couldn't blame them though. Perhaps using his power to force the corrupt council members to commit suicide might have been a tad excessive. Returning to the subject at hand as the hunter had resumed speaking.

"They left on a dark blue seven seated van with a number plate of 2FDR 355 from the entrance of the ally on Kuromagi street. It is most likely that the group posses a powerful ringleader as the vampires appear to be following orders of some kind. As for the direction of the van all I was able to see was that it headed back into the more populated areas. That is all the information I have at the moment."

"That is more then enough. I know the head of this group and I have no doubt that they would have taken Zero to his country residence. I believe it is only some miles from the academy. Please inform Takuma Ichijou that he is to act as the dorm president while I am absent. Good day." With that Kaname walked back out the door and had to force himself not to employ his superior speed, as there were too many day-class eyes about.

By the time he reached the academy gates it was already changeover time. Who knew that human fan girls could be so persistent? They put even the boldest of vampire females to shame. Casting a quick glance around to ensure that there were no humans present Kaname sped off in a blur. Towards the country mansion in the east that was the summer home of his self-proclaimed number one subordinate Shinjiro Ryuuichi. The pure blood was not too surprised that it was he. The vampire although powerful had a few screws missing from his mind. Just who had given Shinjiro the idea that pure bloods needed to be protected he had no idea for many would take offence and kill anyone who dared to claim that they needed protection. Pure bloods were arrogant like that. After millennium of not having a predator they had opted the view of indestructibility. The only ones that stood a chance of killing them were the vampire hunters but they were _human_. Shinjiro had better have a good explanation for this thought the pure blood darkly. On second thought it did not matter what kind of excuse he gave decided Kaname. That man was going to become a pile of ash because nobody, _nobody _touched what was a pure blood's and Zero definitely belonged to him.

**TBC**

**A/N **thanks to all those who reviewed, faved and followed! What do you think? Please review?


	8. rescues

**Learning to Love Again**

**Warnings: I have no beta reader so all grammar and typos are my fault. T.T**

And violence and gore in the later chapies and some swearing.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except from my OC and the plot^^ **

A/N: Thanks to all and sooooo sorry it took this long T.T!

†

Zero groaned as he was woken up by a pounding headache. It was as if his brain had suddenly decided that it didn't particularly like him anymore and had taken to attempting to leap out of his head. Not fun. To make matters worse he realized was that he was chained to a wall. Blinking his eyes open he nearly snorted. What was this? The 'dungeon' he was in seemed like a complete rip off of those cheesy action movies. You would think that vampires would have had more imagination when they decorated. Seriously. There were the customary bars for one wall, no window, a stack of hay in the corner, high arched ceilings complete with dangling chains, hell there was even a infestation of mould in a damp corner. Shaking his head as he heard footsteps echo down the hall Zero smirked. They had forfeited the element of surprise. Even a human could have heard them coming from a mile away. This was ridiculous. Ignoring the footsteps for now the hunter turned his attention to the more pressing issues. Like how the hell he was going to get out of these cuffs?

His ankles were chained to the wall by large chunky metal cuffs much like his hands, which were behind his back. He really really wished that he had been bourn double jointed now. Shifting he felt something dig into his leg. The prefect frowned. He had been sure that it was only his tie so what was that digging into him? Having a hunch he attempted to reach the pocket of his pants. Silently cursing as he saw that his kidnappers were now present. Took them long enough he figured. Foregoing his escape attempt in favor of studying the man that stood on the other side of the bars Zero couldn't help but find the figure wanting. The man was neither physically imposing nor handsome in any way. If the prefect didn't have the infamous hunter 'sixth sense' he would have never picked up that this ordinary man was anything but an oblivious human. The figure that stood in front of him did not have the faintest aura of power anywhere on his person.

For once the hunter chose to do the smart thing and keep his mouth shut. Normally he would have insulted the man's mother at the very least by now. Never knew why he did it, most probably to get a rise out of the vamps was his guess. The silverette's attention was brought back to his pocket as he subconsciously attempted to go into a defensive position. It was an ingrained habit whenever the leeches were around. Come to think of it he never had that particular reaction with Kuran. Not for a while anyway.

Faintly he heard a clink in his pocket. That was good. Another set of footsteps was now coming down the long hall slightly faster this time and filled with purpose, most likely a guard then. The hunter frowned at the new arrival. Guess that he was the one in charge of the 'questions'. Typical vampires snorted the ex-human, what did they want now? The last time he checked he didn't piss anyone off in the last few months.

"Good morning animal." Sneered the first man. Morning thought Zero. That means it was still early into the night. That was good; it meant that he was a couple of minutes away by car from his original position. The man didn't seem too bright. The hunter briefly wondered how much information he could trick out of the vamp. Should he remain silent or be a smart ass? Slightly his lip twitched when the hell did he respond to vamps? Keeping silent would probably piss the guy off more.

Going with that train of thought he composed his face and raised a single eyebrow as if he was not impressed. As predicted the man flew into a fit.

"DON'T YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME YOU FILTHY ANIMAL I AM THE GREAT SHINJIRO RYUUICHI-"

Ah so that was the idiot's name. Inwardly the young hunter frowned wasn't that the self-proclaimed leader of the pure protection or something? Tuning the shouting out Zero focused on how the hell he was going to get out of here. If he wanted to reach in his pocket he would have to dislocate one of his arms, if it contained what he thought it contained then he would be good to go. If not then he would be at a massive disadvantage. Choices choices.

He was suddenly brought out of his musings when the other man came in with a whip tipped with wicked looking blades. He would bet that it was poisoned. The hunter's brain went through a thousand and one situations and the only favorable one that he could see was to go with his original plan. Wonderful. The prefect made a mental note to never go shopping for the chairman again if this is what happens. Sighing he prepared himself for the pain that no doubt would occur in the next few seconds. Here was hoping that he was right about what was in his pocket.

CRACK

The hunter winced. Yep definitely poisoned.

CRACK

That's two. Eyes narrowing he followed the movement of the whip and as it made contact with his chest he jerked his arms to the side and down, resulting in the largest sound to date.

CRACK

Panting he looked up. From the smug faces of his captors he would assume that it was because of the whip. Hiding a feral grin when he touched something metallic in his pocket he sent a glare their way. Ignoring the shouted insults and 'questions' the prefect focused on the lock. Thanking whatever god was out there that he had hated those tiepins with a passion and thus resulting in him 'losing' a good fifty of them in his years at the school. As a consequence a few were left in his pocket. Perfect.

CRACK

The silverette's hand slipped by a fraction of a centimeter, muttering curses under his breath, he had bee _that_ close.

CRACK

The prefect grit his teeth. When he got out of this damn thing they were going to die, slowly and painfully.

CRACK click

Grinning in triumph the ex-level D reached up and grasped the whip that was coming his way. Immensely enjoying the looks on their faces. Why oh why was there never a camera when you wanted one?

Eyes narrowed as the vamp tried to charge him with what looked like electricity running along his fingertips. So that was the reason he was knocked out. Allowing him self to fall to the ground in the last second he watched as the leech run face first into the wall behind.

Which was where a multitude of chains were held including the cuffs that had held him in place.

The prefect smirked as the entire area lit up with electricity and the vamp was fried. Quickly picking the lock that bound his feet the hunter stood up. It looked like that the idiot had called reinforcements. He was trapped. If he went out there then no doubt he would either die or just be captured again, if he stayed in here then they would all just rush him. His eyes fell onto the door in which the now fired vampire had come through. Not a bad idea.

The prefect hurriedly gripped his useless arm and shoved it back into its socket with a sickening pop. Wincing as he gingerly rotated it. Yep never going to do that again.

Seeing that the leeches on the other side were becoming restless he moved to position himself right in front of the open door. This way they would be forced to fight him one-on-one. Settling back into a ready stance he waited for them to make the first move. Soon enough an impatient one charged at him.

From there it was palindrome.

Time passed and the hunter lost count of how many there were. His whole mind focused on staying alive. Break a neck here crack a skull there and mustn't forget to break some arms and legs as well. He would attempt to hit their ribs so that they pierced into the said vamp's heart but he did not yet have the precision. Another thing he would have to get Toga to teach him.

The prefect grit his teeth as another leech got a blow past his guard. He was tiring and he knew it. Unfortunately so did the leeches. What was with him and hopeless situations? Was he cursed or something?

Suddenly a wave of power coursed through the entire building causing the vamps to stop and look around fearfully. Something was coming, something powerful and it was _not _happy.

Without warning the ground rumbled and quaked and cracked appeared on the walls. Suddenly the very roof was jerked form above their heads and in the opening stood one pissed off pure blood. Namely Kaname Kuran.

≈Ω≈

Kaname was not a happy pure blood.

He had ran all the way to the house and only to find his Zero in a crowd of vampires, after he had torn off the roof. Sending his glare at the level-c vampires that had dared to attack his mate he made sure that each and every one of them exploded into a cloud of dust. No one touched what was his. No one.

†

Zero muttered under his breath. This was humiliating. It was the second time the bloodsucker had to save him. True the first time Mei was there but still. He was a hunter damn it. To make things worse he had a sinking feeling that he knew why the pure blood had done it. Looking up and giving a nod of thanks to said vampire the prefect used the walls as a push off point and jumped high enough to grab the broken edges of the roof with his fingertips. Hauling himself up beside the pure blood he muttered his thanks and left it at that. He did not want to ask any thing least it confirm his suspicions. He grit his teeth. He was scared that if it was confirmed he would feel…happy and that was not an option. He was _not _in denial.

§

Mei watched in amusement as the two men walked through the academy gates. One was looking rather smug and the other looked as if he was desperately trying to forget something. Chuckling at the antics of the two she turned and leapt towards the chairman's office intent on reporting the news of the two's return. She couldn't wait till the school break.

≈Ω≈

Kaname Kuran was a very happy vampire when he went back to the dorms that 'night'. It never ceased to amuse him what his little hunter's reaction was to a hug, especially the most recent one. On the way back Kaname had decided to hell with it and 'glomped' the poor boy. What amused him was the fact that the hunter had first completely sank into the hung then immediately stiffened muttering curses and trying to escape. The funniest thing was that the resistance lasted all of three seconds before the prefect muttered a damn it and gave up, completely red in the face as well. It was just too darn cute to let him go after that. Why did he never have a camera on him when he wanted one?

†

Zero was lying face down on his bed in the dorms. Why oh why did his will power choose to now of all times to desert him? He would never live it down.

A little voice in his head whispered that he should just stop being stubborn and to accept it. He crushed that voice with dare he admit it, some difficulty. Where the hell did all of his will power go?! This was beyond humiliating. To think that he had agreed to stay with the chairman during break… He must be insane. Why did he make that promise with Mei again?! Oh right, because he was a sucker for heart to heart talks. He knew that he promised that he would attempt to withhold judgment till he 'got to know' the vamp but he couldn't help it. He had spent most of his life deprived from any type of contact and here comes Kanam-_Kuran_ who seems hell bent on making up for all that lost time. To make matters worse Zero thought. I'm enjoying it… He was sooooo dead.

§

The warrior maiden was napping while the sensei droned on and on. Sure Toga was a good teacher in things hunter but put him in a class room setting and no matter how out-of-place he looked the man was boring as hell. At least Ethics would be fun. What had possessed Cross to hire Kaito she had no idea. Although not too bad the man had some skewed views of the world and 'loose' ethics to put it nicely. Thus most of the lesson was him reading out of the text book and making fun of it. Namely making up scenarios where the proposed 'rule' was essentially a hindrance. As for the rest of her classes she mostly slept through them much like Zero. She knew all of this stuff anyway. Why did she agree to re-take high school again? Right her annoying habit of falling hook line and sinker for guilt traps. The general was promptly woken out of her doze by a duster in the face, or rather potential chalk duster in the face. As it was due to her reflexes she was able to catch it right before it was about to hit it's intended target. Only to find that a second duster was following the first, forced her to quickly duck if she didn't wish to be nailed in the face. Fortunately the one behind her was Zero and had the abilities to catch the projectile also. As it turned out the male hunter was sleeping was well. Well-played Toga well played though Mei.

Yawning she looked next to her at the shy girl that was her neighbor. Her name was Sayori Wakaba or as she preferred 'Yori'. As it turned out Mei was right where Yuki used to be. Damn she felt like a replacement right now. Ah well at least no one would mistake her for that eyesore. Mei had made a point to be as unlike the idiot as possible.

Yuki was a fan of miniskirts and high socks and boots. Mei wore the boy's pants and military grade combat boots with flexible soles that ended at a third of the way up her shin.

Yuki tended to wear too small shirts and an open jacket in an attempt to show off her cleavage. Which Mei had felt compelled to note that although they seem to have grown in size they were still nowhere the size of say Ruka's. Hell even she had bigger ones and she wasn't what you would call 'well endowed'. Although that might be helped by her habit of binding her chest…

To counteract the whore's non-existent fashion sense, Mei wore a snugly fit blouse that did not impend her movement and at the same time wasn't flapping around when even the slightest wind blew. This was mainly due to her advanced hearing though. Yuki's ribbon constantly looked limp and ready to fall off at any moment, Mei had opted to wear her's like a thin tie. Coupled with the slightly large jacked she could almost have passed for a guy. That was if one did not take into account her figure, face and hair.

Yuki had the weird habit of keeping her hair down even when it was evident that it needs a wash. Mei always had it tied up out of her eyes in some way. Be it with a headband, half pony, full high ponytail, bun or plats. Say what you like about her but Mei was practical. It would do no good to have hair constantly falling into your eyes when in the midst of a high-speed battle where sight was a must.

Yuki had also forsaken the schools crest, which by consequence hurt the Chairman. (It was his crest after all and to see his adopted daughter abandon it in such a fashion, no doubt the old man was hurting) As a result Mei made a point to always wear her prefect armband and to wear a school crest at all times. Be it the necklace or the tiepin. She knew the man's pain and so did her best to let him know that not all had left him. For someone who had lived such a long life like him it must hurt to see all of his loved ones pass away one after the other while he himself remained in his prime. Thus Mei did her best to let the old man know that he was not alone. He had been one of her saving graces after all. He had been there to help pull her out of the deep dark hole that she had buried herself in and she could never thank him enough for that. Although she would never admit it, he had been more of a father figure towards her then her own biological one.

Hence when there was something that she could do to help the old man out she would most likely do it. Well most of the time, the chairman was known to be insane.

†

Zero had been enjoying his much needed nap before a chalk duster nearly hit him in the face. Now awake he blinked at a scowling Toga and tuned out his sensei's lecturing about sleeping during class. Really there was nothing the teachers could say. His grades were near the top of the class and as long as he passed why should they care if he slept during their classes? Shaking his head as Toga ended his rant and went back to teaching.

Bored his mind wondered and as always drifted in the direction of one pure blood vampire. Frowning he made a conscious effort to think of something else. Anything else. His eyes caught a flash of color and landed on one Ying Mei Gwei. Thinking that it was as good of a subject as any he focused on the girl that sat in front of her.

Mei was what he would call a living contradiction. She had a hyper side to her that no one could stop and yet she could be colder then the arctic when it came to certain subjects. Sometimes she forgave the most horrendous of crimes without so much as batting an eyelid but at others she would most likely kill the poor creature as it begged for mercy. She seems to understand the basic fundamentals of emotions and pain with scary clarity but give her warm and fuzzy feelings to deal with and she turned into a blundering fool. She could be highly manipulative at times and at others more obvious then a dancing elephant in a sparkly pink tutu complete with flashing neon signs. She could have a perfect mask on one second and the next a completely transparent one. Nobody could get a fix on the enigma that was the last descendent of the Ying clan.

At least that's what many thought. Zero was one of the lucky few that knew of the Mei without the mask. The girl that did not have the title of the destroyer, dust, black cat, abyss, the general and so many more fearsome nicknames that were bestowed upon her. Zero was one of the few that knew Mei as just Mei. A girl that had a crappy as hell child hood, hated from the second that she was bourn by her very own parents, the girl that was locked away and abused both physically and emotionally for the first four years of her life, The girl that was given up by her own parents to a pure blood vampire in order to saver their own skins, the girl that had the will power to live through all that and keep on going. The jaded girl that had her first kills at barely four and a half, the girl that was the youngest to date that was able to take on and kill a pure blood vampire. The girl that had spent the very first years of her life deprived of home, love and family. The girl that he had looked after when he was five along with Ichiru, the girl that slowly but surely learned of emotions. The girl that was able to overcome every obstacle thrown her way with ease.

Most of all he was the few that knew the girl that was an unsure child that hid behind a enigmatic mask, the girl that still knew nothing about her own heart and the girl that could not yet accept the love of another just as it was.

There were many things that Mei had yet to learn thought Zero. However he was going to be there to explain them to her.

The hunter was suddenly struck with an acute sense of nostalgia. He remembered the girl with weird hair and glassy looking eyes in his living room. He remembered Mei introducing herself in a robotic monotone voice. He remembered her brows knitting together in confusion when Ichiru proclaimed them friends and her shock when his parents patted her on the head and told her 'good job' as she mastered a hunter spell. He remembered the girl that stood in the shadows as the children played in the sunny grassy fields dotted with wild flowers on their day off from training. Most of all he remembered both her first real and her first fake smile.

What was the saddest thing in the young hunter's opinion was the fact that Mei had learned to put on a 'cheery' fake smile before she learned to smile for real. Her first fake smile was when one of the adults told her that she should smile more. When she asked why the answer had been 'to tell others that you were happy'. Unfortunately she took it the wrong way and only smiled as a way to get the adults from worrying. Not many knew that it was a mask. They all thought that she was too emotionally damaged to ever smile for real and took the mask as a sign of improvement. Resulting in her conviction that she should smile to keep others from her pain.

Zero also remembered her first real smile. It was just a plain day and Ichiru had been feeling energetic that day so they had gone to town to go shopping with their mother. As they walked by a jewelry store they saw a ring engraved with Mei's namesake. The Mei flower, after many 'pleas pleas pleeeas mummys' later the twins walked happily out of the store with a disgruntled mother and a ring box safely tucked away in Zero's pocket. What they had found out later was that the ring had been ridiculously expensive due to the intricate artwork that was the flower it's self but with them being only six they had no idea and walked blissfully back home.

That was the night they saw Mei's first real smile. She had looked shocked and confused when they claimed that they had a present for her and presented her proudly with the ring. At first she had not understood the concept of a present but after a very long talk with the Kiryu's she had at least grasped some of it.

Her face had been priceless when she had opened the box and it was that night that the Kiryu household was treated to the very first smile of Ying Mei Gwei.

True it was a tad shaky and unsure but it was there and then the twins had vowed to ensure that they bring out her full smile.

Looking back Zero thought that at least he had achieved something. It had taken a couple of years and many lengthy explanations but they had done it. They brought out her smile.

Briefly Zero wondered after the many years in which he had cut himself off from the HA society did she still have the same smile? Or did all of his work slowly but surely fade?

Sighing he drew his mind out of such thoughts just as the next teacher walked in and began the day's history class. Crap. Thought the lilac-eyed prefect, I didn't finish that stupid report.

≈Ω≈

Kaname Kuran was in his room massaging his temples just as Takuma walked in with another mountain of paperwork. Will it never end?! He had just finished the last batch! Groaning he banged his head against the desk much to the amusement of his 'childhood' friend. What had he done to deserve this? Not only that but he had to put up with the constant annoyance that was his sister as well. Why didn't he just kill her again? Oh yeah it would cause mass panic. Again. If the rest of the vampire population thought that he was able to kill his own flesh and blood without so much as a thought then all of them would think that a) he was going mad, b) if he could kill his own sister without guilt then he could may as well kill them all or c) he was just that cruel and was keen on world domination after all.

How he hated politics. Perhaps he could ship her off to someone… but no he had killed everyone he hated any way (they were mostly all in the council) and there really wasn't anyone left that he would wish the torture that was Yuki on. Stupid stupid mistakes of youth.

§

Mei was tapping her foot impatiently as the clock at the front counted down the second's left of class. Not that she enjoyed her prefect duties but she hated the mind numbing boredom that was class even more. For the sake of a change in scenery she would put up with a few minutes of screeching fan girls. Finally after what seemed and eternity their teacher for the day yelled

"Dismissed!" and Mei along with the majority of the students rushed out of class. The students because tomorrow was the weekend and so they wanted an extra long dose of their beloved 'sempais' and Mei because she really wanted fresh air. The shadow was an outside person; she preferred to be able to feel the sun and wind in her face, although it might have had something to do with her early childhood.

Walking along the road she thought about her latest order from the HA. The she-man of the place was definitely up to something. Why else would he send her on a two month 'extended hunting trip' to the bloody mountains of the Himalayas?! What was that bastard planning to do during the mid year break? Mei knew that he wanted her out of the way during that time but what for? The time period was too ridiculous, that means he expected her to finish early. Since she normally finished weeklong hunts in one day then that means by the president's 'calculations' she would not be back until at least the end of the break. This was troubling. What the hell was he up to? The worst thing was the she could not refuse a direct order from the president without good reason and suspecting the president of unsavory activities without proof was definitely not a good reason.

The general had a sinking feeling that it revolved around the school somehow. It was just a hunch that something would go horrible wrong during the mid year break, and her hunches were always right…Damn it. Every thing had better be just fine when she got back. With a sigh she went to tell the chairman of her latest assignment, debating whether or not to work herself into the ground to get back before time. Probably should, knowing Zero's luck. Let politics and scheming association presidents' rot in the deepest pits of hell for all time, stupid fucking power plays.

µ

Toga was troubled. He had just got news that he was being ordered on a 'diplomatic business trip' to fucking America for three weeks. What was worse was the fact that he had received it one week after Mei got her own insane assignment. Now he didn't even have to wait for Kaito to get his 'extended trip' to know that something was going on. No way would any sane person pull out so many hunters form an area this full of vamps. Something was going to happen and the president was making damn sure that no hunter with any skill was going to be around when that happened. Well that is if one did not count Kaien… but he had made that promise not to wield his sword again. What the hell was that manipulative bastard up to now?! Muttering under his breath he went to pack. Stupid fucking president, stupid fucking politics oh how he wished that he could shoot both of them in the head. He was getting too old for this shit.

Takamiya Kaito stared at the piece of paper in front of him, blinked and kept staring. Was the president an idiot? Did the stupid she-man really think that he of all people would fall for something like this?! Two hours ago he had received the order and when he had first seen it he had thought that it was just a routine hunt. He was wrong; it wasn't even a trip to a country known to have vampires like Toga-sensei's or some place with dangerous terrain like Mei's. No the idiot of a president wanted him to go to the middle of the fucking Sahara desert. WHAT THE FUCK?! This was pushing it. Couldn't the moron have come up with a marginally better excuse?! What the fuck would _vampires_ of all things be doing out in the desert?! Forget vampires there were barely any humans there! AGHHHHHHHH! Stupid fucking president, stupid fucking plots just go jump off a cliff both of you!

†

Zero was confused. First two weeks before the mid year break Mei had come storming into the chairman's house one weekend and proceeded to shove weapons into a duffle bag all the while muttering something about plots, high altitudes and fucking idiots. She had spared time to give him some information about a hunt in the Himalayan Mountains or something and stormed back out.

Then a week later Toga had come into class with a dark expression on his face sprouting some gibberish about going to America a week early due to something or rather. From what he heard from the Chairman Toga-sensei was to go on a diplomatic business trip to the HA of America. Normally that would be just fine but the man was shit with anything that even hinted at civil. He was more of a kill-first-ask-later kind man. He also did not know even one fucking word of English.

Finally a day before the break Kaito didn't turn up at his last class and when asked the sub claimed that the guy had gone to some place in the Sahara desert. Thus leaving him the only active hunter in a twenty-kilometer radius. What the fuck was going on?!

§

It was official. When the general got back to Japan the first thing she would do would be to kill the moron of a president. Her target was in some no name village that was conveniently in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain. So far the only of any kind she had seen were the few pitiful looking trees and a herd of fucking goats!

µ

Toga couldn't take it any more. What the fuck was he doing here?! So far the only thing that had happened was obtaining a translator and a dinner party. What the hell was he supposed to be doing?! Wasn't he here for 'diplomatic matters'?! When he got back the president was going down.

Kaito's eye twitched. He was covered in sand, sand and more sand. It did not help that according to the monitor there was supposed to be sand storm heading his way. What the fuck was he supposed to do here anyway get a tan?! The second he got back first thing on his agenda was to take a long shower. Then he was going to hunt that bastard of a she-man down and torture him to death!

≈Ω≈

Kaname Kuran was a happy pure blood. First he essentially able to stay in the same house as his mate for more then two weeks and second he had not seen Yuki for at least three days. He had forgotten what silence sounded like. The only thing that marred his mood was the unshakeable feeling that something was going to go spectacularly and horribly wrong in the near future. Looking out of his French style windows in the moon dorm he could see the rolling storm clouds that would no doubt hit the academy very soon. He could smell the rain and lightning. It seemed that a storm was coming and he did not mean the natural kind. No he was thinking about the kind of storm that could only be achieved by a powerful pure blood. Something was wrong.

Kaname was abruptly jerked out of his thoughts by a piercing scream that echoed in the silent halls of the moon dorm. Yes thought Kaname something was definitely wrong.

Smoothly standing and making his way out the door he sent a scan and found the majority of his vampires situated in his sister's room. What had the girl done now? Drain some poor level c?

Walking slightly faster than normal as the whispers started he made it to the girl's room just as Takuma did. Nodding to each other they stepped in. What greeted them was a strange sight. Every thing in the room was in some stage of decay. The curtains were little more then rags, the carpet was faded and patches of the crumbling floor beneath could be seen. Anything that was made out of wood or contained it was covered in rot and all metallic substances were rusting right before their eyes. Apart from that the room was empty. There was not even a single hair of Yuki to be seen. Where had she gone? It was obvious by the state of her room that she had unlocked some of her pure blood powers but where was the girl herself? Suddenly the uneasiness that Kaname had been feeling doubled. What was going on? All active hunters apart from Zero were conveniently sent out of the country on insane missions, school was about to have it's break soon so most of the night class and day class students would go back to their respective homes. The paths to the out side world would be basically closed off and- Kaname blinked. There was no way that could be… but there was not way everything could be a coincidence. Something was going to happen during the school break and somehow Zero Yuki and himself would be right in the middle. They would be isolated for the time of two whole weeks, fourteen days with no reinforcements or back up.

Kaname's eyes narrowed, who was planning and what was their goal? Turning back to his room Kaname shut the door and sat down to think.

Three powerful hunters were suddenly called away their trips all consisting of the mid year break. Then that meant the HA was in the thick of things. If they did not want their hunters here then it would mean that it had something to do with vampires and powerful ones at that, most likely pure bloods. Then they had not pulled Zero away so that would make him one of the possible targets, along with Cross. For it to be during a time when the school was nearly completely empty spoke of the need of secrecy. That would make it either unsanctioned, illegal or the battle of vampires. Possibly all three mused the resident pure blood. He had once again found himself in a game of chess, this time with unknown players. Oh don't get him wrong he knew that the president of the HA was behind some of it but what was he? Was he a king or just another pawn? Most of all how many kings will command their pieces on the board this time?

Kaname nearly smiled. It seemed that it was time to pick his pieces for the next round.

**A/N I'm so sorry!** I have no excuse…. Anyway thanks to all of you who are still sticking by me! I will try to set a regular update schedule but no promises. As always thanks to all!


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